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UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 


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POEEI&I 


REMINISCENCES, 


BY 


HENRY  RICIIAKD 


LORD   HOLLAND. 


■     EDITED    BY    HIS    SON, 

HENRY  EDWARD  LORD  HOLLAND. 


NEW  YORK: 

HARPER  &  BROTHERS,   PUBLISHERS, 
82   CLIFF    STREET. 

r 

1851. 


%^ 


0^ 


TO 


JEROME   BUONAPARTE, 


MARSHAL    OF   FRANCE, 


GOVERNOR   OF    THE   "  INVALIDES  ;" 


THE    ONLY    SURVIVING    BROTHKR    OP    THE    EMPEROR    NAPOLEON  ; 


€Yu  Wuk 


IS     RESPECTFULLY      DEDICATED, 


BY  HIS  GBATEFUL  AND  OBLIGED  SERVANT, 


HOLLAND. 


Holland  House,  May  5,  1850.  -  ^. 


PREFACE. 


The  recent  events  on  the  Continent  have  induced  the 
Editor  to  publish  the  following  pages  on  foreign  politics. 
The  times  of  which  this  volume  treats  have  already 
acquired  the  interest  of  a  long  past  age ;  and  the  public 
will  read  with  pleasure,  and  perhaps  with  profit,  the 
observations  on  passing  events  of  a  contemporary  who, 
if  not  wholly  impartial,  is  acknowledged  by  all  who 
knew  him  to  have  been  as  candid  as  he  was  benevo- 
lent. 

The  Editor  has  scrupulously  abstained  from  making 
the  slightest  verbal  alteration  in  the  text  or  notes.  The 
omission  of  four  insignificant  sentences  is  all  that  he  has 
deemed  necessary  for  the  immediate  publication  of  what 
was  probably  written  with  the  intention  of  not  seeing 
the  light  so  soon. 

Paris,  Sept.  10,  1850. 


I 


FOREIGN    REMINISCENCES. 


A  SHORT  account,  however  desultory,  of  such  persons, 
anecdotes,  or  political  intrigues  in  foreign  countries,  as 
have  fallen  within  my  observation  or  knowledge,  may  not 
be  uninteresting.  But  as  a  foreigner,  however  favorable 
his  opportunities  or  sound  his  judgment,  seldom  relates 
any  English  event,  or  describes  any  English  character, 
without  committing  sonie  gross  blunder,  I  check  myself 
with  the  reflection  that  I  also  must  be  liable  to  be  mis- 
led by  false  information,  or  to  form  an  erroneous  estimate 
of  manners,  opinions,  and  transactions  out  of  my  own 
country.  I  can  only  vouch  for  the  anecdotes  I  record, 
by  assuring  my  readers  that  I  believe  them ;  I  repeat 
them  as  they  were  received  and  understood  by  me,  from 
what  appeared  sufficient  authority ;  and  I  delineate  the  . 
characters  either  as  the  result  of  my  own  impressions,  or 
of  the  opinions  conveyed  to  me  by  those  who  were  most 
capable  of  drawing  them  correctly.  .  - 

In  my  first  short  journey  fibroad  in  1791,  I  was  a  mere 
boy,  and  too  little  acquainted  with  the  habits  and  language 
of  the  people  among  whom  I  was  traveling  to  observe 
much,  yet  many  interesting  events  were  passing  around 


14  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 

me.  I  arrived  at  Paris  not  long  after  the  death  of  Mira- 
beau,  and  soon  after  the  acceptance  of  the  constitution  by 
Louis  XVI.  The  designs  of  Mirabeau  to  coalesce  with 
the  court  party,  or  at  least  to  check  the  revolutionary 
spirit,  were  more  than  suspected  before  his  death.  He 
was  in  a  constant  state  of  intrigiae  with  all  parties,  and 
particularly  with  Monsieur  (Comte  de  Provence,  and  after- 
ward Louis  XVIII.)  in  the  business  of  Favras.  The  Duke 
of  Levi  was  the  channel  of  communication  between  him 
and  Monsieur  in  that  mysterious  and  disgraceful  affair. 
Yet  the  solicitude  of  the  people  during  his  illness  was 
unabated,  and  stories  almost  incredible  of  the  attention  of 
the  populace,  in  preventing  the  slightest  disturbance  in  the 
street  where  he  was  lying  ill,  were  related  in  all  societies 
with  that  delight  and  admiration  which  dramatic  displays 
of  sentiment  never  fail  to  excite  in  Paris.  The  shops  and 
quays  were  crowded  with  his  portraits  and  busts.  A 
stranger  could  discern  in  his  physiognomy  nothing  but 
visible  marks  of  debauch,  vanity,  presumption,  and  artifice, 
which  were  strong  ingredients  in  his-  composition  ;  but  the 
Parisians,  yet,  stunned  by  his  eloquence,  and  dazzled  by 
his  splendid  talents,  seemed  to  dwell  on  the  representation 
of  his  large  features,  pock-fretted  face,  and  frizzed  hair, 
with  fond  complacency  mingled  with  regret.  He  was 
certainly  an  extraordinary  man.  That  his  powers  would 
have  been  equal,  as  has  often  been  suggested,  either  to 
check  or  to  guide  the  subsequent  course  of  the  French 
Revolution,  may  nevertheless  be  very  questionable.  He 
was  thought  to  be,  and  probably  was,  very  corrupt ;  but 
an  exemption  from  that  vice  was  the  solitary  virtue  which 
gave  individuals,  and  Robespierre  in  particular,  any  as- 


MIRABEAU.  15 


cendency  in  the  later  and  more  stormy  seasons  of  that 
frightful  period. 

Mirabeau  had  the  talent,  or  at  least  the  trick  and  con- 
trivance, of  appropriating  the  ideas  and  .labors  of  other 
men  to  his  purposes  in  a  very  extraordinary  degree.  I 
have  been  assured  by  one  who  knev7  him  intimately,*  and 
acted  for  a  short  time  as  his  secretary,  that  not  only  the 
i-eports  he  made,  but  the  speeches  he  delivered,  were  often 
written  by  others,  and  read  by  him  in  the  morning,  or  even 
run  through  and  adopted  by  him  (as  I  have  seen  briefs  by 
our  lawyers)  while  he  was  actually  speaking.  The  vari- 
ous imprisonments  and  embarrassments  to  which  his  dis- 
orderly life  and  licentious  pen  had  exposed  him  are  well 
known.  The  prosecution  against  him  in  England  was  the 
malevolent  contrivance  of  a  crazy  and  faithless  servant, 
who  falsely  accused  his  master  of  having  robbed  him. 
There  was  nothing  remarkable  in  that  incident,  but  the 
public  and  warm  testimony  of  Sir  Gilbert  Elliot  and  Mr. 
Burke  himself  in  favor  of  a  man  whose  influence  on  the 
French  Revolution  was  afterward  so  conspicuous,  and 
who§e  lax  principles  and  immoral  life  furnished  so  fertile 
a  theme  for  invectives  against  it.  The  vanity  of  Mirabeau 
exposed  him,f  it  is  said,  to  a  droll  reproof.     At  some  im- 

*  This  is  my  excellent  friend  Damont ;  but,  though  he  was 
veracious  and  fond  of  anecdotes,  he  was,  by  his  own  admission,  a  very 
inobservant,  and,  by  my  experience  of  him,  a  very  credulous  man. 

f  Though  this  anecdote  was  told  me  by  many,  and  among  them  M. 
Dumont,  I  am  disposed  to  question  its  accuracy  ;  for  M.  Talleyrand, 
to  whom  the  bon-mot  was  attributed,  quarreled  with  Mirabeau  upon 
t|ie  publication  of  the  letters  from  Beilin,  and  never  spoke  to  liini 
afterward  in  private  till  a  few  days  before  his  death,  when  Mirabeau 


16  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 

portant  political  crisis,  he  was  descanting  in  society  on  the 
qualities  requisite  in  a  minister  to  extricate  the  crown,  the 
assembly,  and  the  nation  from  the  difficulties  in  which  they 
were  involved,  viz.,  great  knowledge,  great  genius,  ac- 
quaintance and  perhaps  connection  with  the  upper  ranks, 
some  common  feelings  with  the  lower  classes,  a  power  of 
speaking  and  of  writing  eloquently  and  readily,  familiarity 
with  the  world,  the  popularity  of  a  martyr  from  recent 
prosecution,  and  many  others,  which  it  was  obvious  enough 
that  he  thought  were  united  in  himself.  "All  this  is  true," 
said  a  friend,  "  but  you  have  omitted  one  of  his  qualities." 
"  No — surely  ?  what  do  you  mean  ?"  "  Should  he  not," 
replied  the  same  sarcastic  friend,  "  be  very  much  pitted 
with  the  small  pox  ?"  * 

Mirabeau  was  not  the  only  revolutionist  supposed  in 
1791  to  have  been  converted,  or  at  least  softened,  toward 
the  court.  Barnave,  touched  (said  the  Royalists)  by  the 
behavior  of  the  King  and  his  family  when  he  conducted 
them  back  from  Varennes,  disgusted  and  alarmed  (said 
the  Fayettists  and  Constitutionalists)  by  the  coarse  man- 
sent  for  him,  expressed  his  remorse  at  the  publication,  and  prevailed 
upon  Talleyrand  to  pronounce  a  posthumous  speech  composed  by  him 
(Mirabeau)  on  some  subject  then  pending  in  the  chamber.  More- 
over, I  have  discovered  that  my  excellent  friend  Dumont,  though  ve- 
racity itself,  was  often  very  credulous  about  anecdotes  recounted  to 
him,  and  liable  to  mistakes  about  the  dates,  persons,  and  occasions. 
Yet  when  I  asked  Talleyrand,  he  did  not  entirely  disdain  the  bon- 
mot :  probably  its  excellence  made  it  somewhat  tempting  to  own  it. 
Possibly  he  said  it  of  and  not  to  Mirabeau,  in  which  case  it  is  still 
good,  but  not  so  quick,  clever,  or  striking. 

*  Et  pique  de  la  petite  verole.     It  was  Mirabeau's  case  to  a  very 
remarkable  degree. 


LAFAYETTE.  -         17 


ners  and  bloody  designs  of  the  Jacobins,  secretly  seduced 
(whispered  others)  by  the  ambition  of  governing  both  par- 
ties in  France,  lent  his  very  powerful  aid  to  the  more 
moderate  councils,  and  contributed  with  Feuillans  and 
Fayettists  to  prevent  the  establishment  of  a  Republic,  when 
the  event  seemed,  if  ever,  to  justify  and  recommend  such  a 
step.  At  the  moment  of  the  King's  escape,  that  project 
must  have  occurred  to  many.  It  was  checked  even  then 
by  individuals  among  the  Feuillans,  and  more  particularly 
by  D' Andre,  a  Provencal  merchant,  who,  in  spite  of  a 
strong  accent,  was  a  very  able  debater  and  popular  leader 
in  the  Assembly,  and  who,  through  the  gradations  of  a 
Feuillant,  Fayettist,  Constitutionalist,  and  Emigrant,*  be- 
came ultimately  an  agent  of  the  Bourbons,  not  without  sus- 
picion of  having,  at  an  earlier  period,  secretly  connected 
himself  with  the  designs  of  that  family.  He  interrupted 
and  overruled  one  Ramond,  who  was  speaking  to  his  Feu- 
illant colleagues,  the  very  day  of  the  King's  escape,  on  the 
necessity  of  a  Republic,  by  touching  his  Proven(^al  knife 
half  in  joke  and  half  in  earnest,  and  saying  that  he  should 
use  it  against  any  one  who  seriously  recommended  the 
abolition  of  Monarchy.  Lafayette  assured  me  that,  at  a 
meeting  of  his  friends,  all  present  but  twof  agreed  that 

*  He  survived  the  restoration,  returned  to  Paris,  and  was  rewarded 
by  the  Bourbons,  under  whom  he  laid  out  and  improved  the  Bois  de 
Boulogne  with  much  taste,  judgment,  and  economy. 

f  Viz.,  the  Duke  de  la  Rochefoucault  and  Dupont  de  Nemours. 

Lafayette,  in  speaking  of  the  transactions  of  those  days,  many  years 
afterward  (January,  1826),  assured  me  that  he  was  surprised  to  find 
so  many  even  of  the  most  violent  revolutionists  concur  in  the  notion 
of  preserving  monarchy  after  the  arrest  of  the  King.     Some  were  for  a 


18  FOREIGN  RExMINISCENCES. 

Monarchy  must  be,  for  a  season  at  least,  preserved;  that 
France  was  not  ripe  for  a  Republic ;  and  that  a  constitu- 
tional King  was  still  necessary.  The  Duke  de  la  Roche- 
foucault  earnestly  urged,  before  the  others  had  spoken,  the 
immediate  declaration  of  a  Republic,  though,  when  it  was 
otherwise  decided,  he  never  courted  popularity,  nor  sought 
to  distin<]^uish  himself  from  his  friends  bv  referring  to  such 
an  opinion.  On  the  contrary,  he  did  his  utmost  to  main- 
tain the  constitutional  system,  and  the  King  at  the  head  of 
it.  ^  The  meeting  alluded  to  occurred  after  the  arrest  at 
Varennes,  and  in  the  hotel  of  the  Duke  de  la  Rochefou- 
cault.  Surely  the  Duke  de  la  Rochefoucault  was  in  the 
right.     The  establishment  of  a  Monarchy,  with  the  view 

change  of  dynasty.  Wild  men  talked  of  the  Duke  of  York,  and  Duke 
of  Brunswick,  and  other  foreign  princes  ;  perhaps  some  thought  more 
than  they  talked  of  the  Duke  of  Orleans ;  but  the  idea  of  a  Republic 
was  confined  to  a  very  few  indeed,  and  even  with  republicans  con- 
sidered either  as  impracticable  or  premature.  He  added  that  many, 
and  he  among  the  number,  were  more  readily  inclined  to  acquiesce 
in  the  restoration  of  Louis  XVI.  from  letters  written  by  several  En- 
glish persons  and  particularly  the  Duchess  of  Devonshire  and  Mr. 
Fox,  expressing  great  anxiety  for  his  personal  safety  and  that  of  tho 
Queen.  These  letters  they  misinterpreted  into  an  opinion  of  friendly 
but  impartial  spectators  in  favor  of  the  preservation  of  monarchy  ia 
the  person  of  Louis  XVI.  He  acknowledged  that  he  afterward  learnt 
in  conversation,  that  one  of  the  letters  at  least,  viz.,  that  of  Mr.  Fox, 
was  written  with  no  such  view,  but  simply  from  motives  of  humanity, 
and  an  ardent  desire  that  the  cause  of  the  Revolution  should  not  be 
sullied  by  any  harsh  or  cruel  proceeding  against  the  individuals  of  the 
Royal  Family.  In  other  respects,  Mr.  Fox  doubted  of  the  policy  and 
even  of  the  justice  of  continuing  Louis  XVI.  on  the  throne,  I  have 
heard  him  say  that  a  separation  of  some  years  from  the  Queen  should, 
in  all  prudence,  have  been  stipulated  as  a  condition. 


LAFAYETTE.  r  19 


of  ripening  it  into  a  Republic,  was  as  mischievous  to  the 
community  as  unjust  to  the  Monarch;  and  the  notion,  that 
Louis  XVI.  could  become  a  constitutional  King,  disposed 
to  weaken  rather  than  strengthen  his  own  authority,  after 
his  intended  flight,  and  w^ith  the  Queen  for  his  consort  and 
adviser,  was  chimerical  and  puerile  in  the  extreme.  He 
had  justified  his  deposal  by  his  flight.  It  was  imprudent  in 
Constitutionalists,  it  was  madness  in  Repubhcans,  not  to 
insist  on  it.  Above  all,  it  was,  as  the  event  proved,  very 
mistaken  mercy.  . 

Lafayette  and  others,  however,  from  very  generous  mo- 
tives, were  averse  to  seizing  such  a  moment  for  the  sub- 
version of  Monarchy ;  and  they  were  actively  instru- 
mental in  discouraging  all  harshness,  severity,  or  insolence 
to  the  King  and  his  family.  I  dined  frequently  with  Gen- 
eral Lafayette.  He  kept  a  sort  of  open  table  for  officers 
of  the  National  Guard,  and  other  persons  zealous  and  for- 
ward in  the  cause  of  the  Revolution.  I  was  pleased  with 
the  unaffected  dignity  and  simplicity  of  his  manners,  and 
flattered  by  the  openness  with  which  he  spoke  to  me  of  his 
own  views,  and  of  the  situation  of  the  country.  He  was 
loud  in  condemning  the  brutality  of  Petion,  whose  cold 
and  offensive  replies  to  the  questions  of  the  royal  prisoners 
on  their  journey  back  from  Varennes  were  very  currently 
reported ;  and  he  was  in  his  professions,  and  I  believe  in 
his  heart,  much  more  confident  of  the  sincerity  of  the  King 
than  common  prudence  should  have  allowed  him  to  be,  or 
than  was  justified  either  by  the  character  of  Louis  himself, 
or  by  the  truth  as  disclosed  by  subsequent  events.  La- 
fayette was,  however,  then  as  always,  a  pure,  disinterested 
man,  full  of  private  affection  and  public  virtue,  and  not 


2t)  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 

devoid  of  such  talents  as  firmness  of  purpose,  sense  of 
honor,  and  earnestness  of  zeal  will,  on  great  occasions, 
supply.  He  was  indeed  accessible  to  flattery,  some- 
what too  credulous,  and  apt  to  mistake  the  forms,  or, 
if  I  may  so  phrase  it,  the  pedantry  of  Hberty  for  the 
substance  ;  as  if  men  could  not  enjoy  any  freedom  without 
subscribing  to  certain  abstract  principles  and  arbitrary 
tests,  or  as  if  the  profession  and  subscription,  nay,  the 
technical  observance  of  such  tests  and  principles,  were 
not,  on  the  other  hand,  often  compatible  with  practical 
oppression  and  tyranny.  These  strictures,  however,  on 
his  blemishes  are  less  applicable  to  the  period  to  which  I 
am  now  referring  than  to  most  others  of  his  pubhc  life; 
for  with  all  his  love  of  popularity,  he  was  then  knowingly 
sacrificing  it  for  the  purpose  of  rescuing  a  court  from  con- 
tumely and  injury,  and,  though  a  republican  in  principal, 
was  active  in  preserving  the  name  and  perhaps  too  much 
of  the  authority  of  a  King  in  the  new  constitution.  He 
either  tickled  my  youthful  vanity,  or  gained  my  affections 
so  much  during  my  residence  at  Paris,  that  I  caught  his 
feelings,  and  became,  for  the  time,  enthusiastically  per- 
suaded of  the  King's  sincere  attachment  to  the  new  consti- 
tution. In  this  prepossession  I  was  fortified  by  hearing 
his  speech  to  the  Legislative  Assembly,  which  he  delivered 
in  a  clear  but  tremulous  voice,  with  great  appearance  of 
earnestness.  Perhaps  the  qualified  terms  in  which  he 
acknowledged  his  original  approbation  and  acceptance 
of  the  constitution  gave  greater  force  to  the  very  positive 
assurances  which  he  made  that  he  would  adhere  to  it. 
He  seemed  in  his  engagements  for  the  future  to  be  under 
no  constraint,  when  he  could  so  manifestly  avow  his  reluct- 


LOUIS  XVI.  21 


ance  to  acquiesce  in  the  past.  "  Enfm  je  I'ai  acceptee  et 
je  la  soutiendrai  et  dedans  et  dehors,"  are  words  which 
still  ring  on  my  ear,  and  which  made  no  small  impression 
at  that  time  on  my  mind,  not  hitherto  steeled,  by  experi- 
ence of  their  hoUowness,  to  royal  speeches  and  written 
paragraphs.  Louis  XVI.  was  at  that  very  moment,  if  not 
the  main  instigator,  a  coadjutor  and  adviser  of  the  party 
soliciting  foreign  powers  to  put  down  that  very  consti- 
tution by  force.*'  Louis  XVI.,  however,  was  neither  a 
bad  nor  a  foolish  man,  and  he  certainly  was  not  a  cruel 
one.  But  sincerity  is  no  attribute  of  princes  educated 
in  the  expectation  of  power,  and  exposed  to  the  dangers 
of  civil  disturbance.  As  Louis  did  not  inherit,  so  neither 
did  he  acquire,  ,that  virtue  by  discipline  or  reflection. 
He  meant  the  good  of  the  people  whom  he  deemed 
himself  destined  to  govern,  but  he  thought  to  promote 
that  good  more  certainly  by  preserving  than  by  sur- 
rendering any  part  of  the  authority  which  his  ancestors 
possessed.     Vanity,f  a  weed  indigenous  in  the  soil  and 

*  It  is  just  to  observe  that  Lafayette,  and  some  others  concerned 
in  the  transactions  of  those  days,  even  now  acquit  Louis  XVI.  of  all 
participation  in  the  plan  of  invading  France  ;  that  I  have  no  private 
knowledge  on  the  subject  whatever;  and  that  my  opinion  and  state- 
ment in  the  text  are  founded  entirely  on  public  and  historical  docu- 
ments accessible  to  every  one. 

f  I  am  aware  that  in  imputing  this  vice  to  Louis  XVI.,  I  contradict 
not  only  a  common  report  and  tradition,  but  the  testimony  of  many 
who  had  opportunities  of  studying  his  character.  My  opinion  is 
founded  on  the  evidence  of  facts,  on  the  judgment  and  representation 
of  M.  de  Calonne,  confirmed  by  several  traits  related  to  me,  without 
any  view  of  maintaining  any  theory  on  the  subject,  by  emigrants  and 
courtiers,  and  by  some  circumstances  in  the  Memoirs  of  Bezenvai 


2-2 


FOREIGxN  REMINISCENCES. 


much  favored  by  an  elevated  state  on  which  flattery  is 
continually  showered,  confirmed  that  notion  in  his  mind 
and  disinclined  him  to  any  real  confidence  in  his  ostensible 
ministers  and  advisers.  It  made  him  fondly  imagine  that 
he  never  could  become  the  tool  of  secret  machinations, 
or  the  instrument  of  persons  in  his  judgment  so  greatly 
inferior  in  intellect  and  acquirements,  as  those  who  sur- 
rounded him.  M.  de  Calonne  told  me  that  when  he  had 
ascertained  that  the  Queen  and  her  coterie  were  hostile  to 
the  plans  he  had  prepared,  he  waited  on  the  King,  respect- 
fully and  delicately  lamented  the  Queen's  reported  dis- 
approbation of  his  project,  earnestly  conjuring  his  Majesty, 
if  not  resolved  to  go  through  with  the  plan,  and  to  silence 
all  opposition,  or  cavil  at  it  within  the  court,  to  allow  him 
to  suppress  it  in  time  ;  but  if,  on  the  other  hand,  his  Majesty 
was  determined  to  persevere,  suggesting  the  propriety  of 
impressing  on  the  Queen  his  earnest  desire  and  wishes  that 
nothing  should  escape  her  lips  which  could  sanction  a  doubt 
of  the  excellence  of  the  measures  themselves,  and  still  less 
of  the  determination  of  the  court  to  adopt  and  enforce  them. 
Louis  at  first  scouted  the  notion  of  the  Queen  (une  femme, 
as  he  called  her),  forming  or  hazarding  any  opinion  about 
it.  But  when  M.  de  Calonne  assured  him  that  she  spoke 
of  the  project  in  terms  of  disparagement  and  censure,  the 
King  rang  the  bell,  sent  for  her  Majesty  to  the  apartment, 


and  Madame  Campan,  the  latter  of  which,  when  divested  of  the  deco- 
rum, not  to  say  hypocrisy,  with  which  such  subjects  must  necessarily 
be  treated  Ijy  a  lady  attached  to  the  court,  will  convince  a  reader  who 
has  a  key  to  the  secret,  that  Louis  was  in  her  judgment,  self-suiTi- 
cient  in  his  disposition,  disobliging,  and  even  coarse  and  brutal  iu  his 
manners. 


MARIE  ANTOINETTE.  23 

and  after  sternly  and  even  coarsely  rebuking  her  for  med- 
dling with  matters,  aTixquelles  les  femmes.rCont  Hen  a  f aire, 
he,  to  the  dismay  of  De  Calonne,  took  her  by  the  shoulders, 
and  fairly  turned  her  out  of  the  room  like  a  naughty  child. 
"Me  voila  perdu,"  said  De  Calonne  to  himself,  and  he 
was  accordingly  dismissed,  and  his  scheme  abandoned,  in 
the  course  of  a  few  days.* 

Marie  Antoinette  did  not  obtain  an  ascendant  over  her 
husband  in  consequence  of  any  such  complexion  in  him  as 
had  brought  his  cousins  of  the  Spanish  branch  so  often 
under  the  dominion  of  their  wives.  Indeed,  though  the 
calumnies  against  the  unhappy  Queen  were  often  atro- 
ciously unjust,  it  is  perhaps  fortunate  for  her  reputation 
that  the  nature  of  the  topic  is  sufficient  to  account  for  the 
silence  of  Madame  Campan  respecting  the  causes  of  that 
tardiness  of  affection  in  the  king  alluded  to  in  her  work. 
Had  that  ladyf  been  released  from  the  restraints  which 

*  See  Appendix,  No.  I.  - 

f  Madame  Campan's  delicacy  and  discretion  are  not  only  pardon- 
able, but  praiseworthy ;  but  they  are  disingenuous,  and  her  Memoirs 
conceal  truths  well-known  to  her,  though  such  as  would  have  been 
unbecoming  a  lady  to  reveal.  She  was,  in  fact,  the  confidante  of 
Marie  Antoinette's  amours.  Those  amours  were  not  numerous,  scan- 
dalous, or  degrading,  but  they  were  amours.  Madame  Campan,  who 
lived  beyond  the  restoration,  was  not  so  mysterious  in  conversation  on 
these  subjects  as  she  is  in  her  writings.  She  acknowledged  to  per- 
sons who  have  acknowledged  it  to  me,  that  she  was  privy  to  the  inter- 
course between  the  Queen  and  the  Due  de  Coigny.  That  French 
nobleman,  from  timidity  of  character  and  coldness  of  constitution,  was 
not  sorry  to  withdraw  himself  early  from  so  dangerous  an  intrigue. 
Madame  Campan  confessed  a  curious  fact,  namely,  that  Ferson  was 
in  the  Queen's  boudoir  or  bed-chamber,  ttte-d-Ute  with  her  Majesty 


24  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 


the  delicacy  of  her  sex  imposed  on  her  relation,  she  might 
have  found  it  difficult  to  reconcile  a  true  exposition  of  the 
details  with  her  avowed  confidence  in  the  virtue  of  Marie 
Antoinette,  or  at  least  to  have  persuaded  men  of  profes- 
sional experience,  that  the  birth  of  the  royal  children 
was  a  proof  and  a  triumph  of  surgical  skill. 

As  I  was  not  presented  at  court,  I  never  saw  the  Queen 
but  at  the  play-house.  She  was  then  in  affliction,  and  her 
countenance  was,  no  doubt,  disfigured  by  long  suffering 
and  resentment.  I  should  not,  however,  suppose  that  the 
habitual  expression  of  it,  even  in  happier  seasons,  had  ever 
been  very  agreeable.  Her  beauty,  however  extolled,  con- 
sisted, I  suspect,  exclusively  in  a  fair  skin,  a  straight  person, 
and  a  stately  air,  which  her  admirers  termed  dignity,  and 
her  enemies  pride  and  disdain.  Her  total  want  of  judg- 
ment and  temper  no  doubt  contributed  to  the  disasters  of 
the  Royal  Family,  but  there  was  no  member  of  it  to  whom 
the  public  was  uniformly  so  harsh  and  unjust,  and  her  trial 
and  death  were  among  the  most  revolting  parts  of  the 
whole  catastrophe.  She  was  indeed  insensible  when  led 
to  the  scaffold;  but  the  previous  persecution  which  she 
underwent  was  base,  unmanly,  cruel,  and  ungenerous  to 
the  last  degree. 

In  1792,  the  princes  of  the  blood,  with  the  exception  of 

on  the  famous  night  of  the  6th  of  October.  He  escaped  observation 
with  considerable  difficulty,  in  a  disguise  which  she  (Madame  Cam- 
pan  herself)  procured  for  him. 

This,  M.  de  Talleyrand,  though  generally  somewhat  averse  to  re- 
tailing anecdotes,  disparaging  of  the  Royal  Family  of  France,  has 
twice  recounted  to  me,  and  assured  me  that  he  had  it  from  Madame 
Campan  herself. 


DUKE  OF  ORLEANS.      '  ,  25 


the  Duke  of  Orleans,*  had  left  the  country.  I  had  known 
the  Duke  of  Orleans  slightly  in  England,  and  some  of  my 
friends  and  relations  were  acquainted,  and  in  some  senses 
were  connected  with  him  ;  but  I  saw  little  or  nothing  of 
him  at  Paris  in  1791.  He  probably  overlooked  me,  or  if 
he  did  not,  was  unwilling  to  show  civility  to  a  stranger  who 
frequented  Lafayette,  and  who  lived  in  a  society  particularly 
hostile  to  him.  I  regret  not  having  seen  more  of  him,  be- 
cause I  believe  that  no  man  has  lived  in  my  time  whose 
character  has  been  more  calumniated,  or  will  be  more  mis- 
represented to  posterity,  and  I  should  have  liked  to  have 
confirmed  or  corrected  this  persuasion  of  mine  by  more 
personal  observation  than  I  had  any  opportunity  of  making. 
His  carriage  and  countenance,  though  the  latter  was  disfig- 
ured by  carbuncles,  were  prepossessing,  and  his  manners 
were  perfect.  His  superiority  in  those  respects,  as  well 
as  his  command  of  money,  excited  the  jealousy  of  the  court. 
His  popularity  at  Paris,  the  Judicium  Paridis,  was  perhaps 
sufficient  to  account  for  the  first  estrangement  of  the  Queen, 
though  some  scandalous,  but  I  really  believe  unfounded 
rumors  would  represent  the  other  hemistich  of  Virgil's 
verse,  the  spretce  injuria  formce,  or  neglect  of  her  advances, 
among  the  causes  of  that  strong  aversion  which  marked 
her  language  and  conduct  long  before  any  political  differ- 
ences could  have  justified  or  explained  such  hatred.  Many 
womanish  artifices  were  resorted  to  to  vex  him,  to  spoil  his 
amusements,  to  interrupt  his  parties,  and  to  expose  him  to 
those  small  mortifications  which,  in  all  countries,  are  apt  to 
awaken  the  resentment  of  weak  minds  as  much  or  more 

*  The  old  Prince  de  Conti  was,  I  believe,  still  in  France,  but  too 
insignificant  there  and  every  where  to  require  any  notice. 


26  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES, 

than  serious  injuries,  and  to  which  an  extravagant  import- 
ance is  always  annexed  in  France,  even  by  persons  other- 
wise of  some  sense  and  magnanimity.  That  hostility,  how- 
ever, in  which  the  court,  not  the  Duke  of  Orleans^  was  the 
aggressor,  was  by  no  means  confined  to  petty  warfare. 
In  defiance  of  decency  and  truth,  the  most  malignant  charges 
of  cowardice  were  propagated  and  countenanced  by  the 
Queen  and  her  party  against  the  Duke  of  Orleans  on  his 
return  from  the  fleet  in  1778.*  I  have  heard  well-informed 
Frenchmen  ascribe  his  visits  to  England  and  predilection 
for  our  usages,  then  termed  Anglomanie,  to  the  studious 
exclusion  of  him  from  both  the  business  and  the  amusements 
of  his  native  court,  and  to  the  disgust  he  felt  at  the  direct 
and  indirect  slights  put  upon  him.  At  the  same  time  it 
must  be  acknowledged  that  his  habits  were  far  from  re- 
spectable.    Those  f  who  had  first  engaged  him  in  the  Rev- 

*  This  is  not  only  asserted  in  the  printed  menioirs  of  Madame  de 
Genlis,  and  by  the  uniform  report  of  pei^sons  connected  with  the  Palais 
Royal,  but  Talleyrand,  Lafayette,  Lord  St.  Helen's,  Puysegur  and 
other  emigrant  royalists,  have  admitted  it  to  me  in  conversation  fre- 
quently, and  even  borne  their  testimony  to  facts  in  corroboration  of  it. 
The  malignity  and  falsehood  of  the  charges  against  him  are  admitted  by 
the  author  of  the  introduction  to  his  correspondence  (whoever  he  was), 
printed  and  published  at  Paris  in  1800  in  8vo,  by  Le  Rouge,  impri- 
meur,  and  Debraye,  bookseller,  which  publication  confirms  much  be- 
sides in  my  text. 

f  Who  were  the  individuals  who  swayed  the  politics  of  the  Duke 
of  Orleans,  urged  him  on  this  occasion  to  return,  and  managed  for  him 
his  interests  and  popularity  with  the  rabble  at  Paris,  is  a  mysteiy  very 
difficult  to  penetrate.  Madame  de  Genlis  inflamed  his  animosity 
against  the  Queen,  and,  though  she  denied  it,  was  certainly  instru- 
mental in  originally  immersing  him  and  afterward  maintaining  him  in 


DUKE  OF  ORLEANS.  27 


olution  were  dissatisfied  at  his  absence  in  England,  to  which 
the  remonstrances,  and  some  pretend  the  actual  menaces, 
of  Lafayette,  after  the  6th  of  October,  had  driven  him.* 
They  considered  it  as  a  pusillanimous  desertion,  and  inces- 
santly urged  him  to  quit  a  retirement  which  assumed  the 

political  intrigues.  Laclos,  his  secretary,  was  a  man  of  great  talent, 
much  suspected,  but  never  convicted  of  "  close  designs  and  crooked 
counsels."  Sieyes,  too,  had  influence  w^ith  hira.  Ducrest,  the  brother 
of  Madame  Genlis,  notwithstanding  some  disputes  and  lawsuits  with 
the  Duke  of  Orleans,  is  said  to  have  had  some  influence  with  him,  and 
to  have  uniformly  exerted  all  he  had  against  the  court. 

*  Many,  and  some  honorable  men,  had  assured  Lafayette  that  they 
actually  saw  the  Duke  of  Orleans  in  the  mob  of  the  6th  of  October, 
he  afterward  believed,  and  indeed  knew,  especially  from  M.  Talley- 
rand that  the  fact  was  false,  and  the  persons  alleging  it  mistaken,  yet 
the  weight  of  the  testimony  at  the  time  was  so  great  that  it,  in  his 
mind,  overbalanced  the  mere  improbability,  and  the  representations  to 
him  to  take  some  steps  against  the  Duke  of  Orleans  were  so  urgent 
that  he  determined  to  speak  to  him.  They  met  at  Madame  de  Coig- 
ny's.  Lafayette  advised  him  in  a  decided,  perhaps  somewhat  peremp- 
tory tone  to  quit  France,  and  insisted  upon  it  "  in  a  way  (said  Lafay- 
ette to  me  many  years  afterward),  that  if  employed  toward  myself 
might,  I  must  acknowledge,  have  had  the  effect  of  determining  me  to 
stay  rather  than  go,  yet  it  did  not  amount  to  a  threat.  He  (Duke  of 
Orleans)  might  show,  by  acting  as  he  did  upon  it,  some  want  of  moral 
courage,  but  I  had  no  right  to  imply  (nor  did  I  nor  do  I)  any  want  of 
personal  courage  whatever.  On  the  contrary,  I  do  not  believe  that 
he  was  at  all  deficient  in  that  quality,  on  that  or  on  any  other  occa- 
sion." The  ostensible  reason  of  his  journey  was,  as  is  well  known,  a 
mission  on  the  affairs  of  Belgium,  and  he  certainly  endeavored,  though 
without  success,  to  render  that  mission  more  than  a  pretext.  In  his 
letters  published  at  Paris  in  1800,  see  note  of  3d  of  April,  1790,  p.  120. 
Correspondence  de  Louis  Philippe,  Due  d'  Orleans,  chez  Le  Rouge 
et  Debraye,  Paris,  1800. 


28  FOREIGiN  REMINISCENCES. 


appearance  of  an  ignominious,  though  voluntary  exile. 
To  those  remonstrances  he  reluctantly  yielded,  thou^^h  if 
the  court  would  have  been  prevailed  upon  to  appoint  him 
embassador  in  London,  he  distinctly  offered  to  remain- 
Admiral  Payne,  who  conducted  him  in  a  small  boat  to  his 
yacht  off  Brighton,  assured  me  that  the  Duke  of  Orleans, 
on  taking  leave,  grasped  his  hand  with  much  emotion,  and, 
with  tears  in  his  eyes,  said :  "  If  I  consulted  my  inclination 
or  my  safety  I  should  stay  in  your  happy  country,  but  I 
am  told  that  I  am  bound  in  honor  to  return ;  for  that  rea- 
son, and  that  reason  only,  I  go.  You,  my  dear  Payne,* 
will  recollect  that  I  am  not  blind  to  my  situation,  nor  to 
the  scenes  I  am  going  to  encounter.  I  shall  do  no  good 
to  any  body,  I  shall  lead  a  dreadful  life,  and  I  shall  prob- 
ably perish  among  the  first,  or,  at  least,  very  soon."  Be- 
fore leaving  France,  he  had  made  some  very  slight  ad- 
vances to  the  court,  but  such  as  showed  that  if  he  and  his 
friends  had  been  secured  from  persecution  and  revenge 
by  being  admitted  into  a  due  share  of  power,  he  was  not 
unwilling  to  co-operate  in  preventing  matters  from  coming 
to  extremities.  He  renewed  these  offers  when  in  England, 
and  before  his  return.  He  proposed  and  even  solicited  to 
have  his  pretended  mission  converted  into  a  real  embassy 

*  Admiral  Payne,  it  must  be  acknowledged,  had  not  the  reputation 
of  being  very  correct  in  his  recital  of  stories,  but  I  see  no  motive  he 
could  have  for  inventing  this  conversation  ;  and  the  general  impression 
I  received  of  the  Duke  of  Orleans'  feelings  at  that  period  from 
Francis  Duke  of  Bedford  to  whom  he  spoke  in  a  similar  strain  at 
Woburn,  as  well  as  his  language  and  conduct  afterward,  convince  me 
that  in  substance  this  relation  is  true,  and  that  the  words  put  into  the 
mouth  of  that  ill-fated  Prince  on  his  departure  from  England  contain 
an  accurate  representation  of  his  sentiments. 


DUKE  OF  ORLEANS.  29 


to  London,  but  when  refused  by  M.  Moutmorin,  he  seems 
to  have  considered  (and  surely  not  very  unnaturally)  the 
exhortation  not  to  return,  and  the  reasons  assigned  for  it, 
namely,  that  his  presence  might  aggravate  the  turbulence 
and  difficulty  of  the  times,  as  an  insult  rather  than  an 
encouragement.  Far  from  preventing,  it  provoked  his 
return  to  Paris.  He  met  on  that,  and  every  other  occa- 
sion, nothing  but  repulse,  disdain,  and  insult  from  the 
courtiers.  This  might  be  very  fine  and  magnanimous, 
but  was  very  impolitic  withal.  If  it  does  not  justify, 
it  at  least  somewhat  palliates,  and  very  satisfactorily 
accounts  for  his  subsequent  connection  with  more  vio- 
lent councils.  After  the  return  of  the  King  from  Var- 
ennes,  it  is  said*  that  he  declined  the  Presidentship,  and 
was  unwilling  to  take  any  forward  part.  Some  attrib- 
ute that  backwardness  to  hypocrisy  and  others  to  pusil- 
lanimity. But  if  the  fact  be  as  it  is  stated,  is  it  clear  that 
delicacy  toward  the  royal  prisoners,  and  an  unaffected  re- 
luctance to  be  forced  into  a  station  of  power,  were  not 
among  the  real  motives  for  his  forbearance  ?  Surely  that 
was  the  opportunity,  which  a  man  of  the  unprincipled  ambi- 
tion and  thirst  of  vengeance  so  often  imputed  to  him  w^ould 
have  chosen  for  activity  !  The  construction  I  am  dis- 
posed to  put  upon  his  conduct  is  as  follows  :  Popularity 
and  some  triumph  over  the  malignity  of  the  court,  especi- 
ally of  the  Queen,  were  naturally  enough  his  objects  at 
the  beginning  of  the  Revolution  :  he  soon  grew  tired  of  the 
intrigues,  then  shocked  at  the  excesses,  and  at  last  alarmed 
at  the  consequences  of  that  event ;  and  before  the  time  I 
am  now  referring  to,  1791,  his  own  ease  and  safety,  and 
*  In  various  publications,  but  I  do  not  vouch  for  the  fact. 


BO  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 

the  protection  of  such  as  had  incurred  any  enmities  on  his 
account,  was  all  that  he  expected,  or  perhaps  as  much  as 
he  wished  to  obtain.  Talleyrand,  who  knew  him  well, 
and  who  in  a  joint  work  with  Beaumetz,  which  was  never 
published,  shortly  afterward  delineated  his  character,  de- 
scribed him  to  me  as  indifferent  alike  to  the  pursuits  of 
pleasure  or  vanity,  ambition  or  revenge,  and  solely  intent 
on  enjoying  ease  and  preserving  existence.  He  was  so 
jaded  (si  hlase,  un  homme  si  desabuse),  that  he  had  out- 
lived even  the  necessity  of  emotion  (le  besoin  de  s'ernouvoir). 
There  is,  indeed,  reason  to  suspect  that  the  persons  instru- 
mental in  creating  and  preserving  his  personal  influence 
in  Paris,  were  active  agents  in  the  municipal  cabals  and 
revolutions  which  preceded  and  accompanied  the  10th  of 
August  and  the  2d  of  September  of  1792;  and  true  it  is, 
that  the  only  party  which  showed  the  least  disposition  to 
identify  itself  with  his  interests,  or  to  concert  with  him,  con- 
sisted of  a  portion  of  those  to  whose  language  and  manasu- 
vres  the  horrors  even  of  that  last  day  are  mainly  attributed 
by  well  informed  authors.  Some  of  them,  and  Dan  ton  in  par- 
ticular,* were  not  unwilling  in  concert  with  the  Duke  of 

*  Danton,  who  is  well  known  to  have  been  an  unprincipled,  cor- 
rupt, and  dauntless  man,  was  alternately  in  communication  with  all  par- 
ties, and  was  employed,  if  not  bribed  by  the  court,  to  use  every  means  to 
impair  the  popularity  of  Lafayette  and  the  Constitutionalisis.  He  re- 
ceived 4000  louis  from  Montmorin,  probably  for  that  purpose.  Lafay- 
ette, who  had  ascertained  the  fact,  upbraided  Danton  with  it  in  one  of 
the  few  interviews  he  had  with  him,  to  dissuade  him  from  instigating  tho 
mob  to  insults  on  the  Royal  Family  in  1792.  Danton  acknowledged  th& 
receipt  of  the  money,  but  called  it  an  indemnity  for  a  place  of  Avouc^ 
which  he  had  lost  by  a  decree  of  the  Constituent  Assembly.  It  was 
probably  on  the  occasion  of  that  payment,  and  his  subsequent  conduct 


DUKE  OF  ORLEANS.  '  31 


Orleans  to  save  the  life  of  the  King,  and  by  a  junction  with 

the  Brissotins  and  moderate  Republicans,  to  put  a  stop  to 

the  excesses  of  the  populace,  provided  they  could  obtain 

an  oblivion  and  impunity  for  all  that  had  hitherto  pass- 

'  ed.     But  Republicans  and  philosophers  were  as  unreason- 

,^ably  hostile  and  nearly  as  blindly  improvident  wherever 

^  the   Duke  of  Orleans  was   concerned,  as   the   Royalists 

]  themselves.      Scruples,  honorable  no    doubt,   but   highly 

unseasonable,  and  not  altogether  consistent  with  their  own 

conduct  before  and  during  the  10th  of  August,  made  the 

friends  of  Roland,  Brissot,  and  Gaudet,  revolt  at  any  thing 

like  coalition  with  men  covered  with  the  blood  of  their 

fellow-citizens,  though  such  a  junction  was  the  obvious, 

so  little  in  unison  with  the  opinion  of  those  from  whom  he  received  it, 
that  he  made  the  impudent  defense  imputed  to  him :  "  On  donne 
volontiers  80,000  francs  pour  une  homme  comme  moi,  mais  on  n'a  pas 
un  homme  comme  moi  pour  80,000  francs."  In  the  same  conversa- 
tion with  Lafayette,  he  told  that  General  that  he  was  more  of  a 
Royalist  than  he  was,  which,  as  Lafayette  obsei-ved  was  not  difficult 
to  be,  but  no  reason  for  treating  Royality  with  brutality  and  insult. 
The  fact,  however,  is  that  th-e  more  one  ascertains  of  the  conduct  of 
Danton,  by  far  the  ablest,  though  the  most  corrupt  of  all  the  Ter- 
rorists of  1792,  the  moi*e  ground  one  finds  for  suspecting  that  he  had 
some  designs,  and  even  some  principle,  though  not  favorable  to  the 
Ewonarchy.  He  would,  no  doubt,  have  preferred  from  obvious  and 
personal  motives  (as  many  honest  men  would  have  done  for  public  and 
patriotic  reasons),  an  indirect  dynasty  in  the  house  of  Orleans  to  a 
direct  one  in  that  of  Louis  XVL  or  XVIL  ;  all  persons  who  combine 
a  love  of  freedom  with  a  sense  of  the  necessity  of  monarchy,  must 
•  acknowledge  that  in  England  a  Nassau  or  a  Brunswick  was  preferable 
to  a  Stuart ;  and  that  in  France  a  Bonapart-e  or  an  Orleans  is  much 
more  reconcilable  with  safe  and  free  government  than  a  prince  whose 
title  is  exclusively  derived  from  primogeniture  and  lineal  descent. 


32  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 

and  perhaps  the  solitary,  method  of  preventing  the  effusion 
of  more.     Danton  and  his  followers,  who  had  so  largely 
participated  in   the  crimes  of  the  Terrorists,  were  com- 
pelled to  proceed  with  their  associates,  when  they  despair- 
ed of  obtaining  impunity  from  the  triumph  of  the  more 
moderate  and  numerous  but  less  popular  party  in  the  Con- 
vention.    The  Duke  of  Orleans  could  not  have  saved  the 
King  by  voting  against  his  death ;  and  he  more  certainly 
than  any  one  man  in  the  assembly  would  have  accelerated 
his  own  by  so  doing.     On  the  other  hand,  he  was  also  the 
one  man  in  that  assembly,  on  whom,  had  any  counter- 
revolution  occurred,  the   Royal   vengeance  would   most 
unquestionably  have  fallen   without   mercy.      Such  con- 
siderations would  not  weigh  with  a  Cato,  but  they  were 
calculated  to  shake  the  constancy  of  ordinary  men.     The 
Duke  of  Orleans  had,  therefore,  at  least  as  much  excuse 
for  the  vote  he  gave  as  the  360  who  voted  with  him ;  and 
those  who  bold  regicide  to  be  the  greatest  of  possible 
crimes,  have  nevertheless  no  right  to  select  him  as  the 
greatest  criminal.     He  was  well  aware  of  the  pecuh'arity 
of  his  own  situation.     Of  that  I  have  seen  some  curious 
proofs  in  a  short  narrative  written  by  Mrs.  Elliott,  who 
had,  I  believe,  lived  with  him,  and  who,  on  the  score  of 
old  acquaintance,  prevailed  on  him  to  save,  through  his 
garden  at  Monceaux,  and  at  no  small  peril  to  himself,  the 
younger  Chancency,*  who  was  implicated  in  the  afRiir  of 
the  10th  of  August,  and  who,  as  was  justly  observed  by 
the  Duke  in  his  hearing,  so  far  from  incurring  any  risk  to. 

*  He  took  the  name  of  Quintin,  together  with  an  estate  in  York- 
shire ;  and  on  the  restoration  of  Louis  X-VIII.  heid  an  office  of  rank 
in  the  Tuileries. 


TALLEYRAND.  33 


serve  him,  would  have  been  among  the  first  to  urge  his 
execution.  He  was,  to  my  knowledge,  among  the  last  to 
relieve  the  subsequent  distresses  of  his  generous  benefac- 
tress, Mrs.  Elliott,  or  to  mitigate  the  censures  with  which 
it  was  the  fashion  in  most  companies  throughout  Europe  to 
visit  the  name  of  the  Duke  of  Orleans.  That  Prince  per- 
ished soon  afterward  on  the  scaffold,  and  disproved  one  of 
the  imputations  cast  upon  him,  by  the  composure  with 
which  he  met  his  fate.* 

It  was  in  this  visit  to  Paris  in  1791,  that  I  first  formed 
acquaintance  with  M.  Talleyrand.  I  have  seen  him  in 
most  of  his  vicissitudes  of  fortune ;  from  his  conversation 
.  I  have  derived  much  of  the  little  knowledge  I  possess  of 
the  leading  characters  in  France  before  and  during  the 
Revolution.  He  was  then  still  a  bishop.  He  had,  I  be- 
lieve, been  originally  forced  into  holy  orders,  in  conse- 
quence of  his  lameness,  by  his  family,  who,  on  that  ac- 
count, treated  him  with  an  indifference  and  unkindness 
shameful  and  shocking.  He  was  for  some  time  aufnonie?' 
to  his  uncle,  the  Archbishop  of  Rheims ;  and  when  Mr. 
Pitt  went  to  that  town  to  learn  French,  after  the  peace  of 
1782,  he  lodged  him  in  an  apartment  in  the  Abbey  of  St. 
Thierry,  where  he  was  then  residing  with  his  uncle,  and 
constantly  accompanied  him  for  six  weeks,  a  circumstance 
to  which,  as  I  have  heard  M.  Talleyrand  remark  with 
some  asperity,  Mr.  Pitt  never  had  the  grace  to  allude 
either  during  his  embassy,  or  his  emigration,  or  in  1794, 
when  he  refused  to  recall  the  cruel  order  by  which  he  was 
sent  away  from  England,  under  the  alien  bill.     Talleyrand 

*  See  Introduction  k  la  Correspondance.    Paris,  1800.     Page  iv. 
misprinted  vi. 


B* 


34  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 


was  initiated  into  public  affairs  under  M.  de  Calonne,  and 
learnt  from  that  lively  minister  the  happy  facility  of  trans- 
acting business  without  effort  and  without  ceremony  in  the 
corner  of  a  drawing-room,  or  in  the  recess  of  a  window. 
In  the  exercise  of  that  talent,  he  equaled  the  readiness  and 
surpassed  the  wit  of  his  model,  but  he  brought  to  his  work 
some  commodities,  which  the  latter  could  never  supply ; 
viz.,  great  veracity,  discretion,  and  foresight.  He  dis- 
played little  or  no  talent  for  public  speaking  in  the  Na- 
tional Assembly.  His  reports  and  papers,  especially  one 
on  education,  procured  him  some  celebrity,  but  were,  I 
suspect,  the  composition  of  other  men.  His  abilities  were, 
however,  acknowledged,  for  they  were  undeniable,  and 
his  future  success  foreseen.  Of  his  joint  embassy  with 
M.  Chauvelin,  I  have  spoken  elsewhere.  He  escaped 
from  Paris  five  days  after  the  2d  of  September,  with  a 
passport  from  Danton,  the  grandee  of  democracy  (ce 
gi^and  Seigneur  de  la  Sansculotterie,  as  Garat  happily 
termed  him).  And  he  acknowledged  that  the  passport 
was  not  only  useful  to  his  immediate  object,  but  became 
yet  more  eminently  so,  when  he  was  anxious  to  return  to 
France  under  the  Directory.  It  proved  he  was  no  emi- 
grant. I  had  here  related  the  interview  between  Danton 
and  Talleyrand,  in  which  the  latter  had  obtained  his  pass- 
port, as  I  heard  it  soon  after  the  event  from  Dumont,*  to 

*  Dumont,  as  I  have  elsewhere  remarked,  was  almost  always  un- 
observant and  often  inaccurate,  though  honest.  My  general  and  long 
observation  of  Talleyrand's  veracity  in  great  and  small  matters  makes 
me  confident  his  relation  is  correct.  He  may,  as  much  or  more  than 
other  diplomats,  suppress  what  is  true;  I  am  quite  satisfied  he  never 
actually  says  what  is  false,  though  he  may  occasionally  imply  it. 


TALLEYRAND.  35 


"whom  I  thought  Talleyrand  had  told  it ;  but  Talleyrand 
assured  me  (in  1830)  that  the  passport  did  not  cost  him  a 
shilling,  and  that  Danton  attempted  neither  to  cheat- nor  to 
bully  him  ;  on  the  contrary,  that  he  was  obliging  and  even 
friendly.  He  gave  a  very  diverting  account  of  the  rea- 
sons which  induced  him  to  be  so,  and  it  was  manifest  from 
his  manner  of  recounting  the  scene  that  he  had  written  it 
down.  It  forms  most  probably  a  passage  in  his  memoirs, 
but  is  in  character  and  complexion  very  different,  and  in- 
deed almost  the  reverse  of  that  which  I  had  heard  and 
recorded,  but  have  now  erased.  It  is  possible  that  the 
circumstances  I  had  attributed  to  Talleyrand's  escape 
from  Paris  in  1792,  had  occurred  between  some  other 
person  and  Danton,  and  that  I  or  my  informant  had  affixed 
the  wrong  name.  He  lived  in  England  very  frugally,  in 
Kensington-square  ;  he  sold  his  library,  and  he  was  on  the 
point  of  engaging  with  a  bookseller  to  publish  memoirs  in 
concert  with  the  ex-President  Beaumetz,  a  gentleman  of 
some  literary  acquirements.  They  had  written  a  life  of 
the  Duke  of  Orleans.  The  facts  and  remarks  were  no 
doubt  chiefly  furnished  by  Talleyrand,  but  Beaumetz  was 
said  to  have  contributed  the  stvle  and  method  of  the 
composition.  Talleyrand,  however,  bethought  himself  of 
the  possibility  of  a  return  to  France,  and  of  the  disadvant- 
age to  which  a  printed  work  of  the  kind  might  expose 
him.  Beaumetz  consented  to  suppress  the  publication, 
but  the  MS.  probably  remained  with  Talleyrand.  Within 
these  few  years  he  has  spoken  to  me  of  his  memoirs,  and 
read  portions  of  them  to  friends  of  mine.  It  is  remark- 
able that  the  passages  and  phrases  frequently  quoted  with 
praise,  are  such  as  relate  to  the  same  period  as  the  joint 


^^6 


FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 


performance  of  him  and  M.  Beaumetz  in  1793.*  Talley- 
rand disliked  his  residence  in  North  America  extremely. 
A  curious  paper  written  or  dictated  by  him  in  the  transac- 
tions of  the  Institute,  records  his  opinion  that  the  United 
States  must  ultimately  connect  themselves  with  the  country 
from  which  they  sprang,  rather  than  with  that  to  which 
they  in  some  measure  owe  their  independence.  It  is  gen- 
erally thought  that  he  negotiated  his  return  to  France 
through  Madame  de  StaeL  He  was  on  intimate  terms 
with  her,  but  had  abandoned  her  society  for  that  of  Mad- 
ame Grand  f  before  the  peace  of  1802.  when  I  saw  him 


*  He  has  since  read  some  relating  to  his  very  early  life  to  ra©  and 
Lady  Holland  and  Allen,  in  which  Beaumetz  could  have  no  share. 
They  are  admirable  in  style,  as  well  as  in  sense.  (1832.) 

f  *'  II  faut  avoir  aime  Madame  de  Stael  pour  connoitre  tout  le  bon- 
heur  d'aimer  une  bete,"  was  a  saying  of  his  much  quoted  at  Paris  at 
that  time,  in  explanation  of  his  passion  for  Madame  Grand,  who  cer- 
tainly did  not  win  him  or  any  one  else  by  the  fascination  of  her  wit  or 
conversation.  For  thirty  or  forty  years,  the  bon-mots  of  M.  de  Tal- 
leyrand were  more  frequently  repeated  and  more  generally  admired 
than  those  of  any  living  man.  The  reason  was  obvious.  Few  men 
uttered  so  many,  and  yet  fewer  any  equally  good.  By  a  happy  com- 
bination of  neatness  in  language  and  ease  and  suavity  of  manner,  with 
archness  and  sagacity  of  thought,  his  sarcasms  assumed  a  garb  at  once 
so  courtly  and  so  careless,  that  they  often  diverted  almost  as  much  as 
they  could  mortify  even  their  immediate  objects.  His  humorous  re- 
proof to  a  gentleman  vaunting  with  self-complacency  the  exti*eme 
beauty  of  his  mother,  and  apparently  implying  that  it  might  account 
for  advantages  in  person  in  her  descendants,  is  well  known  :  ♦'  C'etait 
done,"  said  he,  "  Monsieur  votre  pere  qui  n'etait  pas  si  bien."  The 
following  is  more  recent,  but  the  humor  of  it  hardly  less  arch  or  less 
refined.  The  celebrity  of  M.  de  Chateaubriand,  the  vainest  of  mortals, 
was  on  the  wane.     About  the  same  time,  it  happened  to  be  casually 


TALLEYRAND.  37 


again  at  Paris.  It  became  necessary  on  the  conclusion  of 
the  Concordat,  that  he  should  either  revert  to  the  habits 
and  character  of  a  prelate,  or  receive  a  dispensation  from 
all  the  duties  and  obligations  of  the  order.  He  chose  the 
latter.  But  Bonaparte,  who  affected  at  that  time  to  restore 
great  decorum  in  his  consular  court,  somewhat  maliciously 
insisted  either  on  the  dismissal  of  Madame  Grand  or  his 
public  nuptials  with  that  lady.  The  questionable  nature 
of  her  divorce  from  Mr.  Grand  created  some  obstacle  to 
such  a  union.  It  was  curious  to  see  Sir  Elijah  Impey,  the 
judge  who  had  granted  her  husband  damages  in  India  for 
her  infidelity,  caressed  at  her  little  Court  at  Neuillv.  His 
testimony  was  deemed  essential,  and  he  was  not  disposed 
to  withhold  it,  because,  notwithstanding  his  denial  of  riches 
in  the  House  of  Commons,  he  was  at  that  very  time  urging 
a  claim  on  the  French  Government  to  indemnify  him  for 
his  losses  in  their  funds.  Mr.  (Sir  Philip)  Francis  her 
paramour,  then  at  Paris  also,  did  not  fail 'to  draw  the  at- 
tention of  Englishmen  to  the  circumstance,  though  he  was 
not  himself  admitted  at  Neuilly  to  complete  the  curious 
group  with  his  judicial  enemy  and  quondam  mistress.  M. 
de  Calonne  at  the  same  period  came  to  France  on  the  plea 
of  private  affairs ;  but  with  equal  levity,  presumption,  and 
talent  he  contrived  to  ingratiate  himself  with  some  of  the 
most  Jacobinical  ministers  of  the  Consul.  He  had  even 
concerted  a  plan  with  Fouche  for  supplanting  Talleyrand 
and  improving  the  financial  system  of  Bonaparte.  He  in- 
troduced me  to  Fouche,  whose  countenance,  manner,  and 


mentioned  in  conversation  that  Chateaubriand  was  affected  with  deaf- 
ness, and  complained  bitterly  of  that  infirmity.  "  Je  comprends,"  said 
Talleyrand  ;  "  depuis  qu'on  a  cess6  de  parler  de  lui  il  se  croit  sourd.", 


38  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 


conversation  exhibited  at  that  time  the  profligacy  and  fe- 
rocity, the  energy  and  restlessness  which  one  might  well 
expect  to  find  blended  in  the  character  of  a  revolutionist, 
and  which,  though  more  carefully  concealed  when  he  be- 
came a  courtier,  were  the  chief  ingredients  in  the  composi- 
tion of  that  vain  and  unprincipled  tool  of  the  Republic,  the 
Consul,  and  the  Bourbons.  Talleyrand  baffled  his  intrigue 
with  the  ex-minister  of  Louis  XVI.  The  paper  on  finance 
written  by  Calonne,  and  delivered  by  the  regicide  minister 
of  police  to  the  Consul,  was  answered  in  the  next  Moniteur 
by  the  Consul  himself,  and  the  author,  without  being  act- 
ually named,  scornfully  designated  and  bitterly  ridiculed 
and  reviled.  I  heard  Talleyrand  banter  his  old  friend  Ca- 
lonne on  his  love  of  retreat,  the  night  before  he  was  com- 
pelled to  quit  Paris,  and  when  Talleyrand  possibly  was 
aware  that  the  order  for  his  departure  was  actually  signed.* 
He  was,  however,  by  the  clemency  of  the  Consul  and  the 
remembrance  of  old  friendship  in  Talleyrand,  allowed  to 
return  to  Paris  shortly  afterward,  and  immediately  on  his 
arrival  he  died  of  a  pleurisy  and  a  bad  physician,  to  whom 
when  he  could  speak  no  longer,  he  wrote  in  pencil  these 
remarkable  words :  Tu  m^as  assassine,  et  si  tu  es  honnete 
homme,  tu  renonceras  a  la   medecine  pour  jamais.     This 

*  Talleyrand  assured  me  in  1830,  that  he  did  not  know  of  the  order 
to  Calonne  to  quit  Paris  till  after  he  had  left  it ;  but  it  is  very  possible 
that  he  had  forgotten  so  trifling  a  circumstance  ;  and  if  he  did  not,  his 
expression  to  Calonne,  "  comment,  Calonne,  tu  aimes  done  laretrait?" 
which  1  heard,  was  an  odd  coincidence.  He  recollected  distinctly 
Bonaparte's  disgust  at  Fouche's  protection  of  Calonne,  and  his  con- 
trasting it  with  the  interest  Barthelemy  felt  and  expressed  about  Bre- 
teuil.  *'  Barthelemy  et  Breteuil,  col^  est  dans  I'ordre  des  choses," 
said  he,  "  mais  Fouche  et  Calonne  ;  ah  fi  done !  c'est  de  I'intrigue." 


CALONNE.  33 


agreeable  and  remarkable  man  had  long  ceased  to  have 
any  influence  on  public  affairs.  He  was  not  only  dismissed 
from  office,  and  an  emigrant  from  his  country,  but  he  was 
discarded  from  the  council  of  the  French  Princes,  to  whom 
he  had  unnecessarily  sacrificed  his  own  and  much  of  his 
wife's  fortune  before  I  knew  him.  I  lived  much  with  him 
during  the  last  three  years  of  his  residence  in  England. 
He  is  one  of  the  few  public  men  whose  character  seems  to 
me  to  have  been  well  understood  and  faithfully  drawn  by 
the  writers  of  the  day.  Easy,  obliging,  friendly,  sprightly, 
and  communicative  in  the  intercourse  of  society,  and  sin- 
gularly perspicuous  in  the  statement  as  well  as  transaction 
of  business,  he  had  a  levity  of  character,  an  imprudence  in 
conversation  and  conduct,  and  I  am  afraid  I  must  add  a 
disregard  of  truth,  and  not  unfrequently  an  ignorance  on 
the  subjects  about  which  he  talked  confidently  and  elo- 
quently, which  seemed  almost  incredible  in  a  person  am- 
bitious of  acting  a  part  in  the  affairs  of  the  world,  and 
actually  employed  in  situations  of  great  importance. 
Though  exiled  before  the  Revolution,  and  not  insensible  to 
the  ill-treatment  he  had  received  from  the  court,  he  gallant- 
ly and  incautiously  devoted  his  time  and  fortune  to  the 
service  of  the  emigrant  Princes.  He  was  commission- 
ed by  them  to  solicit  the  aid  of  the  various  sovereigns 
in  Europe  and  particularly  of  Leopold,  who  had  recently 
become  Emperor  of  Germany,  and  who  communicated 
through  various  private  and  ill-chosen  channels  with  Ca- 
lonne,  traveling  under  the  feigned  name  of  an  English 
gentleman,  at  Florence.  His  private  assurances  were  not 
in  Calonne's  estimation  much  more  encouraging  than  the 
cold,  reserved,  and  ambiguous  papers  which,  during  his 


40  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 

short  reign,  issued  from  the  court  of  Vienna  on  the  subject 
of  the  French  Revolution.  Indeed,  according  to  M.  de 
Calonne,  the  royal  emigrants  had  little  reason  to  be  satis- 
fied with  any  of  the  sovereigns  of  that  period,  except  the 
Kings  of  Sweden  and  Prussia,*  both  of  whom  espoused 

*  The  Mcmoires  d^un  Homme  d'Etat  published  at  Paris  in  1828, 
and  said  to  be  either  written  by  the  Prussian  minister  Hardenberg, 
or  made  up  from  papers  he  had  left,  agree  in  many  particulars  with 
the  impressions,  views,  and  recollections  I  have  here  recorded.  I 
had  written  this  and  other  passages  relating  to  the  war  of  Prussia 
against  France  of  1792,  before  I  read  the  Memoires  d^un  Homme 
d'Etat.  Of  the  authenticity  of  that  work  I  know  nothing,  but  its  ex- 
planations of  events  of  that  day  tally  singularly  with  some  points  of  in- 
formation which  I  collected  from  French  and  Prussian  individuals,  and 
which  differ  from  the  common  reports  of  these  matters.  According  to 
the  author  of  that  work,  Gustavus  was  the  only  king  disposed  to  head  the 
emigi^ants  in  a  crusade  against  France,  with  or  without  the  assistance 
of  other  sovereigns.  Catharine  was  as  earnest  in  persuading  him  and 
others  to  undertake  it,  and  Frederick  William  as  sincerely  desirous  of 
engaging  his  brother  sovereigns  in  the  design,  without  any  sinister 
views  of  aggrandizement  or  dismemberment.  But  he  was  at  first 
cajoled  by  Leopold,  then  imperceptibly  swayed  by  his  cabinet  and  gen- 
erals, and  ultimately  galled  and  provoked  by  the  selfish  duplicity  of 
Austria.  Calonne's  version  of  the  matter  to  me  did  not  materially 
differ  from  this.  He  did  not  indeed  mark  the  shades  between  Gusta- 
vus and  Frederick  William,  or  dwell  on  the  epoch  before  the  death  of 
the  former,  when  the  latter  was,  from  prudence  and  from  deference  to 
Leopold,  comparatively  cold  to  the  Princes  and  emigrants,  nor  did  he 
mark  so  broadly  the  discrepancy  between  the  secret  communication  of 
the  court  of  Versailles  (including  the  Queen)  to  the  coalesced  sover- 
eigns, and  those  of  the  Princes  and  emigrants,  as  the  author  of  the 
Memoires.  But  he,  in  the  main,  described  Leopold  as  irresolute,  self- 
ish, and  averse  to  the  cause  as  well  as  to  the  emigrants,  and  Frede- 
rick William  as  originally  earnest,  sincere,  and  disinterested,  but  after- 
waa'd  a  little  perverted  and  much  disgusted. 


DENMARK  AND  PRUSSIA.  -  41 

^    —       — —      — »■!■■  ^^mm-m-M         .      I.—  ■  -    ■■         .   I  .    .1  .-.I     ■  II..  .    ■  I  ■■  ■  ..  ■      ..    I  ■  ■  -^ 

the  cause  cordially,  and  from  a  conviction  that  it  was  the 
interest  of  crowned  heads  to  extinguish  the  revolutionary 
principles  then  prevalent  in  France.  Gustavus  III.,  a  man 
of  more  cunning  than  wisdom,  and  more  ambition  than 
courage,  but  not  destitute  of  talents,  was  soon  afterward 
murdered.  Frederick  William,  became  by  a  strange  fatal- 
ity of  circumstances,  the  chief  deserter  and  betrayer  of 
that  monarchical  confederacy,  of  which  he  was  originally 
the  most  earnest,  and  perhaps  throughout  the  least  insin- 
cere member.  I  spent  the  summer  and  autumn  of  1792 
in  Denmark  and  Prussia.  In  both  those  countries  I  was 
struck  with  two  circumstances  in  the  state  of  public  opin- 
ion, which  account  for  many  subsequent  events  in  Europe, 
though  the  impression  made  by  those  events  has  obliterated 
with  many  the  recollection  of  former  feelings,  and  pro- 
duced such  changes  as  may  invalidate  with  posterity 
the  credibility  of  my  testimony  to  their  existence.  The 
first  was  the  universal  persuasion  that  France  would  be 
subdued  ;  the  second,  the  general  dissatisfaction  and  pain 
with  which  the  prospect  of  such  success  was  contem- 
plated by  large  classes  of  the  people. 

Military  men,  politicians,  and  all  who  were  styled  good 
company,  treated  any  resistance  to  regular  German  armies 
by  French  troops,  much  more  by  National  Guards,  raw 
levies,  volunteers,  or  peasantry,  as  an  utter  impossibility. 
The  art  of  war,  said  they,  was  reduced  to  a  certainty ;  the 
notion  of  valor,  enthusiasm,  or  numbers  defeating  disci- 
plined troops,  commanded  by  an  experienced  captain  like 
the  Duke  of  Brunswick,  was  as  chimerical  as  an  attempt 
to  confute  a  problem  in  mathematics  by  metaphor,  fancy, 
or  ingenuity.     Moreover,  the  moral  as  well  as  the  scientifio 


42  FOREIGxN  REMINISCENCES. 

superiority  of  the  military  powers  (for  so  the  German 
courts  then  termed  themselves  /tar'  e^ox'rjv)  over  French- 
men, w^as  equally  insisted  upon.  The  battle  of  Rosbach 
was  in  every  mouth.  But  though  such  was  the  expecta- 
tion of  success,  there  was  not  equal  joy  at  the  prospect  of 
it.  Many  military  characters  of  high  name,  particularly 
in  Prussia,  deprecated  the  policy  of  the  war,  as  tending  to 
aggrandize  Austria  ;  and  the  people  throughout  the  Protest- 
ant countries  of  the  North  obviously  wished,  though  they 
dared  not  hope,  success  to  Revolutionary  France.  Neither 
was  the  great  mass  of  the  mercantile  and  literary  world 
at  much  pains  to  conceal  their  alarm  at  the  approaching 
triumph  of  royalty,  aristocracy,  and  military  authority 
over  those  principles  of  equality,  w^hich  in  their  judgment 
tended  to  promote  the  industry,  improve  the  faculties,  and 
better  the  condition  of  mankind.  Such  considerations  pre- 
served, for  a  long  period,  the  little  kingdom  of  Denmark, 
under  the  prudent  guidance  of  the  minister  BernstorfF,  in  a 
state  of  perfect  neutrality,  notwithstanding  a  childish  dis- 
position in  the  Crown  Prince  to  ape  the  great  King  of 
Prussia,  and  notwithstanding  the  exhortations  and  menaces 
of  the  various  members  of  the  confederacy  and  the  influ- 
ence which  one  of  them  must  always  possess  in  the  coun- 
cils of  the  court  of  Copenhagen. 

The  Crown  Prince  (afterward  Frederick  VI.),  nephew 
of  our  king,  was  the  ostensible  head  of  the  government. 
The  incapacity  of  his  father  was  acknowledged,  and  though 
he  continued  to  sign  the  edicts  and  public  instruments,  he 
was  not  permitted  to  take  any  part  in  the  deliberation 
upon  them,  nor  were  any  of  his  acts  deemed  valid,  unless 
countersigned  bv  his  son,  whom  the  council  had  in  truth 


KING  OF  DENMARK.  43 


invested  with  all  the  functions  of  royal  authority.  In  fact 
the  royal  signature  was  preserved  as  a  medical  rather  than 
political  expedient.  The  object  was  to  humor  and  soothe, 
the  feelings  of  the  deposed  monarch,  not  to  give  any  valid- 
ity to  acts  which,  without  reference  to  such  formality,  were 
recognized  by  the  courts  of  justice,  and  obeyed  by  the 
people.  When  first  set  aside,  he  had  bitterly  wept  at  being 
no  longer  a  king,  and  adduced  as  a  proof  of  the  misfortune 
which  had  befallen  him,  that  he  had  no  longer  any  papers 
to  sign.  To  satisfy  him,  they  were  afterw^ard  offered  him 
for  signature,  and  he  never  declined  annexing  his  name  to 
all  that  were  presented  to  him,  from  a  fear  of  losing  that, 
his  sole  remaining,  but,  in  his  view,  distinctive  prerogative 
of  royalty.  It  happened  once  or  twice,  from  some  motive 
of  convenience  or  accident,  that  the  Crown  Prince  put  his 
name  to  an  instrument,  before  it  was  sent  to  his  royal  father 
for  his  signature  ;  the  jealous  old  monarch  perceived  it,  and 
when  the  next  paper  was  brought,  he,  to  the  surprise  and 
consternation  of  the  courtiers,  signed  "Christian  and  Co"^%" 
maliciously  observing,  that  he  was  once  sole  proprietor  of 
his  firm,  but  he  found  it  was  now  a  partnership,  and  would 
spare  his  associates  the  trouble  of  adding  their  names.  His 
insanity  was  throughout  of  a  playful  rather  than  a  malignant 
nature.  When  it  was  the  policy  of  the  Queen  Dowager, 
his  step-mother,  to  maintain  him  in  the  exercise  of  his  func- 
tions, she  used  to  exhibit  him  at  card  parties  in  public.  It 
is  usual  in  the  north  of  Europe  to  score  with  chalk,  but 
his  Majesty  on  such  occasions  diverted  himself  with  employ- 
ing it  in  a  less  decorous  manner.  He  would  draw  the  most 
obscene  figures  on  the  green  baize,  and  wink  to  the  by-stand- 
ers  whenever  the  Queen  Dowager,  with  an  averted  face 


44  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 

and  affected  carelessness,  rubbed  out  the  obnoxious  repre- 
sentations with  her  cards,  her  hands,  her  handkerchief,  a 
napkin,  or  any  thing  which  she  could,  with  some  appear- 
ance of  absence,  pass  over  them  for  that  purpose.  He 
continued  for  many  years  to  dine  occasionally  in  public. 
Though  the  foreign  ministers  were  cautioned  neither  to 
provoke,  nor  to  remark  any  of  his  peculiarities,  he  not  un- 
frequently  succeeded  in  disconcerting  them.  He  would, 
for  instance,  ask  them  to  drink  wine,  and  then  throw  the 
contents  of  his  glass  in  the  face  of  the  page  behind  him,  and 
when  by  this,  and  the  addition  of  sundry  grimaces,  gesticu- 
lations and  antics,  he  had  provoked  a  smile,  he  would  sud- 
denly assume  a  grave  and  solemn  countenance,  and  address- 
ing the  minister  opposite  say,  "  Monsieur  I'envoye  parait 
fort  gai  ?  y  a-t-il  quelque  chose  qui  I'amuse  ? — ^je  le  prie  de 
m'en  faire  part."  Such  was  the  innocent  nature  of  the  royal 
insanity.  It  is  a  satire  or  a  commendation  on  the  institution 
of  monarchy  to  remark  that  under  this  absolute  Prince, 
whose  childishness  amounted  to  imbecility  and  lunacy,  the 
commerce,  agriculture  and  prosperity  of  the  kingdom  con- 
tinued to  improve,  the  people  were  relieved  from  the  an- 
cient feudal  burdens  which  oppressed  them,  tranquillity  was 
preserved,  justice  purely  and  impartially  administered,  and 
even  the  foreign  policy  conducted  throughout  a  period  of 
unexampled  peril  and  confusion  in  Europe,  in  a  manner 
which,  when  the  insignificant  resources  of  Denmark  are 
considered,  must  be  acknowledged  to  be  creditable  and 
even  glorious.  That  little  state  of  Denmark  seems  indeed 
an  exception  to  all  rules.  An  arbitrary  monarchy  estab- 
lished with  the  consent,  nay,  at  the  tumultuous  instance  of 
the  people,  has  continued  for  more  than  a  century  to  bo. 


BERNSTORFF.  45 


administered  with  prudence,  wisdom,  and  moderation. 
During  a  large  portion  of  that  time,  her  prime  ministers 
have  been  selected  from  one  and  the  same  family,  not  only 
of  foreign  birth  and  extraction,  but  never  identified  in  inter- 
est with  the  nation  they  governed,  by  the  purchase  or  inher- 
itance of  any  land  within  its  territories.  The  Bernstorffs 
were  all  Germans,  and  their  estates  as  well  as  their  pur- 
chases were  all  in  Germany.  The  actual  representative  of 
the  family,*  himself  for  some  time  minister  in  Denmark, 
has  returned  to  his  native  country,  and  presides  over  for- 
eign aflfairs  at  Berlin.  His  uncle  was  in  office  when  I  was 
in  Copenhagen.  He  was  a  man  of  enlightened  understand- 
ing, agreeable  manners,  and  benevolent  disposition. 

If  the  language  of  the  diplomatic  corps  at  that  court  and 
at  Hamburgh  and  Berlin  in  1792,  corresponded  with  the 
real  sentiments  of  their  respective  governments,  the  neutral 
as  well  as  the  belligerent  Powers  of  Europe  had  as  little 
pretension  to  the  praise  of  moderation  in  views,  scruple  in 
their  means,  or  humanity  in  their  feelings  as  the  French 
Revolutionists;  and  the  expression  of  their  principles  was 
always  as  unqualified  and  not  unfrequently  as  coarse,  vul- 
gar, and  unmannerly  as  that  of  the  Sansculotte  demagogues 
at  Paris.  Count  BernstorfF,  indeed,  never  sanctioned  or 
encouraged  any  of  the  extravagant  professions  of  what  was 
called  loyalty  and  regular  government  at  that  period.  That 
prudence  preserved  the  dignity  of  his  character,  and  spared 
him  many  mortifications.  Whenever  policy  or  necessity 
brought  him  in  contact  with  the  ministers  and  agents  of 
the  various  governments  of  France,  he  had  neither  to  re- 
tract, explain,  nor  deny  any  opinion  that  he  had  privately 
-  *  1826. 


46  FOREIGN  REIVIINISCENCES. 

or  publicly  expressed,  a  humiliation  to  which  almost  every 
prince  or  public  man  throughout  Europe  was  exposed  and 
submitted,  in  the  course  of  the  ensuing  twenty  years,  thus 
betraying  a  pliancy  of  principle,  for  which  history  will 
withhold  from  their  excesses  in  prosperity  the  honorable 
excuse  of  fanaticism,  and  from  their  sufferings  in  adversity 
the  grace  and  dignity  of  martyrdom.  In  continuance  of 
the  singular  contrast  subsisting  between  the  results  and  the 
ingredients  of  the  Danish  monarchy,  their  affairs  have  been 
very  prosperously  conducted  under  their  present  king, 
Frederick  VI.,  then  Crown  Prince.  Yet,  he  was  and  is 
a  person  of  mediocrity,  with  few  natural  advantages,  and 
generally  more  known  for  weaknesses,  such  as  drunkenness 
and  vanity,  than  distinguished  for  any  qualifications  of  a 
commanding  nature.  One  anecdote,  if  true,  would  seem 
to  prove  that  he  was  not  devoid  of  shrewd  observation  and 
sly  humor.  He  was  at  Vienna  dwing  the  Congress  of  1814. 
Wherever  in  the  treaties  there  negotiated  there  had  been 
a  fresh  distribution  of  territories,  and  in  the  German  and 
adjoining  States  there  had  been  many,  the  value  of  each 
cession  respectively  was  estimated  by  the  number  of  inhab- 
itants, and  in  diplomatic  language  the  cession  was  de- 
scribed as  that  of  so  many  souls,  or  ames.  Now  there  was 
no  accession  of  territory  to  Denmark,  but,  on  the  contrary, 
some  small  diminution.  The  King  was  much  courted 
during  the  negotiations,  and  treated  with  friendly  cor- 
diality and  personal  friendship  by  the  Emperor  of  Austria. 
That  high  personage,  on  his  taking  leave,  complimented 
him  most  warmly  on  his  attainments  and  good  conduct,  and 
the  golden  opinion  they  had  acquired.  "  Pendant  votre 
sejour  ici  (said  he),  votre  Majeste  a  gagne  tous  les  ccEurs." 


PRUSSIAN  COURT.  47 


**Mais  pas  une  seule  ame^  replied  somewhat  causticly 
the  ill-requited  sovereign  of  a  well-governed  people.  Till 
then  he  was  never  suspected  of  being  alive  to  the  mortifi- 
cations he  had  received,  and  still  less  of  being  capable  of 
recording  his  sense  of  them,  by  so  smart  and  well- merited 
a  repartee. 

As  the  King  of  Prussia*  and  his  sons  were  with  the 
army,  I  saw  nothing  of  the  court,  and  little  of  the  leading 
men  at  Berlin,  in  1791.  Alversleben  and  the  other  min- 
isters were  mere  ciphers,  or,  at  the  best,  such  men  of 
form  and  business  as  are  the  "  common  growth  of  courts.'* 
General  Moellendorf,  at  whose  table  I  dined  once  or  twice, 
was  remarkable  for  his  personal  appearance,  which  was 
that  of  a  frank,  bold,  and  athletic  veteran,  for  being  one  of 
the  most  distinguished  captains  of  the  Great  Frederick's 
school,  and  for  his  undisguised  disapprobation  of  the  war 
with  France.  He  was  the  pattern  of  an  old  German  gen- 
eral ;  and  his  dinner,  which  lasted  many  hours,  a  specimen 
of  the  old-fashioned  banquets  of  that  country.  The  Queen 
Dowager,  widow  of  Frederick,  was  superannuated  and  un- 
intelligible ;  and  the  reigning  Queen  who  mistook  me  for 
Lord  Holderness,  and  asked  me  if  I  had  not  accompanied 
the  Princess  Mary  to  Hesse  Castle  in  1746,  was  nearly 
crazy.  The  courts  of  Princess  Henry  and  Prince  Ferdi- 
nand at  Bellevue  alone  contributed  to  the  society  of  the 
place.  The  Princess  Henry  was  a  stiff,  uninteresting,  but 
hospitable  personage,  who  lived  separate  from  her  hus- 
band, and  received  in  a  stately  formal  manner  natives  and 
foreigners  twice  during  the  week.  The  etiquette  estab- 
lished by  Frederick,  in  consequence  of  some  uncourtly 

*  Frederick  William  II. 


48  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 


repartees  from  foreign  ministers,  and,  I  believe,  from  Mr. 
Hugh  Elliot  in  particular,  was  still  in  full  force  ;  and,  when- 
ever a  royal  personage  sat  down  to  table,  all  the  diplomatic 
corps  were  obliged  to  retire.  The  exclusion  did  not  ex- 
tend to  foreigners  who  had  no  employment :  it  was  rather 
a  whimsical  exhibition  to  observe  our  minister,  and  other 
diplomats,  start  like  guilty  things,  and  withdraw,  as  the 
organ  in  the  German  clock  of  her  Royal  Highness's  apart- 
ment began  to  summon  us  with  a  tune  to  supper,  at  eleven. 
Prince  Henry  was  at  that  time  at  Rheinsberg ;  where, 
some  years  afterward,  I  visited  him  with  my  family.  His 
aversion  to  the  war  was  attributed  to  predilection  for 
France  and  Frenchmen,  and  to  rivalry  and  jealousy  of  the 
Duke  of  Brunswick,  to  whom  the  command  of  the  army 
had  been  intrusted  by  the  King.  He  was  so  partial  to 
every  thing  French,  that  he  had  not  only  a  troop  of  French 
comedians  in  his  palace,  but  studiously^confined  his  read- 
ing and  his  conversation  to  that  language.  Indeed,  he  had 
either  forgotten  his  native  tongue  so  entirely,  or  affected 
to  speak  it  so  ill,  that,  when  with  unexpected  condescen- 
sion he  directed  the  postillions  by  what  road  to  drive  me 
to  Potsdam,  they  actually  laughed  in  his  face  at  his  defect- 
ive and  foreign  pronunciation  of  the  words.  But  his  many 
private  peculiarities,  as  well  as  his  military  and  political 
actions,  are  recorded  in  various  histories  and  memoirs, 
and  his  character  is  admirably,  though  somewhat  roughly 
drawn,  in  the  celebrated  letters  of  Mirabeau,  from  Berlin. 
He  was  the  ablest  of  the  three  brothers  of  Frederick ;  and, 
if  inferior  to  him  in  "the  field  and  in  the  cabinet,  was  less 
forgetful  of  his  friends,  less  unforgiving  to  his  enemies,  and 
in  all  respects  less  selfish  and  unfeeling  than  that  extraor- 


PRINCE  HENRY  OF  PRUSSIA.  49 

dinary  but  unprincipled  man.  He  had  been  deeply  affect- 
ed at  the  treatment  of  his  brother  Augustus  ;*  he  told  me 
that  he  had  at  one  time  recorded  the  truth  in  his  memoirs, 
and  vindicated  the  memory  of  that  prince  by  exposing 
the  cruelty  and  injustice  of  the  King  ;  but  that  the  latter, 
having  either  suspected  or  ascertained  his  intentions,  had 
adroitly  sealed  his  mouth,  and  compelled  him  to  suppress 
the  passage,  by  extolling  him  (Prince  Henry),  in  his  "  His- 
tory of  the  Seven  Years'  War,"  so  warmly,  and  so  much 
beyond  his  deserts,  that  he  should  incur  the  imputation  of 
the  basest  ingratitude  if  he  left  any  memorial  of  the  weak- 
ness or  wickedness  of  his  encomiast  behind  him.  He 
raised,  however,  a  monument  in  his  garden,  with  a  long 
inscription,  to  the  honor  of  his  less  fortunate  brother,  and 
he  had  the  spirit  to  open  and  to  illuminate  it  on  the  festival 
which  he  gave  on  the  occasion  of  the  King's  visit  to 
Rheinsberg.  He  left  his  opinions  on  the  war  of  1792  to 
be  inferred  from  the  language  held  at  Bellevue,  the  villa  of 
his  brother.  Prince  Ferdinand.  There  the  campaign  was 
very  freely  canvassed,  the  French  generals  extolled,  and 
the  conduct  even  of  the  Convention,  the  clubs,  and  the 
Jacobins  not  unfrequently  palliated.  The  daughter  of  that 
house,  Princess  Louisa  (afterward  Princess  Radzivil),  was 
a  remarkable  person :  according  to  rumor,  she  had  been 
educated  with  the  hopes  of  marrying  the  Prince  of  Wales. 
She  had  unquestionably  studied  with  success  the  language 
and  usages  of  England.     It  is  said  that  George  III.  object- 

*  Called,  I  think,  Prince  Royal,  and  fiither  of  Frederick  William 
II.  He  is  supposed  to  have  died  of  a  broken  heart  after  the  battle  of 
Kolin,  in  consequence  of  the  cold  reception  and  the  unqualified  cen- 
sures with  which  the  King  resented  his  failure  in  that  campaign. 

c 


50  FOREIGN  RExMINlSCENCES. 

ed  to  any  union  with  that  branch  of  the  house  of  Branden- 
burgh,  with  an  observation  drawn  from  the  scandalous 
chronicle  of  BerHn,  viz.,  that  none  of  his  children  should 
ally  themselves  "  with  the  children  of  Schmettau."*     Fred- 
erick, when  there  was  not  much  prospect  of  an  heir  in  the 
other  branches,  had  placed  a  distinguished  officer  of  en- 
gineers of  that  name  in  the  family  of  his  brother  Ferdi- 
nand, in  the  hope  and  expectation,  and,  perhaps,  with  the 
express  injunction,  that  he  would  supply  all  deficiencies  in 
the  household.     The  Princess,  though  lofty  and  decorous 
in  her  demeanor,  was  not  long  insensible  to  the  personal 
and  mental  charms  of  her  chamberlain  ;  and  Schmettau 
annually  announced  the  birth  of  a  prince,  and   received 
some  handsome  presents  for  the  good  news ;  till,  on  the 
third  visit,  according  to  Mirabeau,  the  King,  after  giving  him 
a  gold-headed  cane,  called  him  back  and  said,  "  Schmet- 
tau^ trois!   c'est  assez^     Such  anecdotes,  very  currently 
related,  raised  a  smile  every  where  else,  but  serious  scru- 
ples in  the  mind  of  George  III.     Had  he,  however,  been 
as  consistent  in  them  as  in  most  others,  he  would  have  ob- 
jected to  another  alliance  of  his  family  with  the  house  of 
Brandenburgh.     The  exiled  and  divorced  Queen  of  Prus- 
sia f  is  much  belied,  if,  on  the  marriage  of  her  daughter 
with  the  Duke  of  York,  she  did  not  observe  to  the  cham- 
berlain who  announced  it,  that  it  was  a  good  match  enough 
for  the  daughter  of  Miiller  the  musician,  one  whom  she 
was  accused  of  admitting  to  criminal  familiarities.     Her 

*  Aux  enfans  de  Schmettau. 

I  I  should  have  said  wife  of  Frederick  William,  for  I  believe  he 
had  divorced  her,  and  married  again,  before  he  succeeded  to  the 
Crown. 


DUCHESS  OF  YORK.  61 


husband  himself,  at  one  time  sanctioned  the  conjecture. 
With  the  view  of  debauching  the  young  Princess,  his  re- 
puted daughter,  he  endeavored,  but  in  vain,  to  lessen  her 
abhorrence  of  any  compliance  with  his  passion,  by  depriv- 
ing it  of  the  aggravation  of  incest,  and  disclaiming  all  pre- 
tensions of  being  her  father.  Such  disgusting  profligacy 
should  seldom  be  recorded :  I  would  not  defile  this  narra- 
tive with  such  impurities  if  I  did  not  know,  from  the  best 
authority,  that  what  I  relate  is  true ;  and  if  I  did  not  think 
it  useful  and  right  to  expose  the  state  of  manners  in  those 
German  courts,  which,  with  an  hypocrisy  as  revolting  as 
their  vices,  alleged  a  dread  of  the  subversion  of  religion 
and  morality  to  be  the  chief  motive  of  their  aggression  on 
revolutionary  and  republican  France.  Justice,  as  well  as 
sincere  respect  for  the  memory  of  a  most  amiable  woman, 
calls  upon  me  to  add  that,  to  the  best  of  my  belief,  the 
Princess,  whose  name  is  mixed  up  in  this  disgusting  story, 
was  entirely  free  from  all  reproach  on  that  occasion.  An 
education  in  such  a  court  as  Berlin  was  not  likely  to  pro- 
duce, and  probably  did  not  produce,  any  great  austerity 
of  principle  ;  but  the  Duchess  of  York  was  certainly  dis- 
tinguished through  life  for  the  gentleness  and  frankness  of 
her  disposition,  the  soundness  of  her  judgment,  the  con- 
stancy and  generosity  of  her  attachments  to  her  family, 
her  friends,  and  her  dependents.  Her  understanding  was 
far  superior  to  the  illusions  which  a  station  such  as  hers 
generally  creates.  She  made,  indeed,  no  ostentation  of 
her  philosophy,  but  she  silently  exerted  it,  not  only  in  the 
regulation  of  her  own  conduct,  but  in  softening  and  con- 
cealing both  the  political  and  private  errors  of  those  with 
whom  she  was  connected.    Had  her  husband  lived  to  be 


52  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 

king,  the  country,  as  well  as  he,  would  have  seen  fresh 
reasons  for  regretting  her  untimely  end.  As  Duchess  of 
York,  her  unobtrusive  character  concealed  many  of  her 
good  and  shining  qualities  from  the  eye  of  the  public.  A 
disdain  of  popularity  in  high  rank,  combined  with  endow- 
ments to  command  it,  has,  at  least,  the  merit  of  rarity  and 
self-denial ;  and  I  trust  it  is  a  pardonable  digression  in 
these  notes  to  bear  testimony*  to  the  virtues  of  one  who 
from  that  motive,  or  from  the  still  more  laudable  feelings 
of  tenderness  for  others,  forebore,  during  her  lifetime,  to 
draw  upon  the  public  for  her  due  share  of  gratitude  and 
applause. 

To  return  :  I  have  seen,  but  never  was  presented  to  her 
father,  Frederick  William  II.  However  irregular  in  mor- 
als, he  was  not  devoid  of  superstition.  In  1792,  he  was 
much  under  the  influence  of  a  sect  then  famous  in  Ger- 
many, and  called  the  Illumines.  Of  that  association  of 
visionaries  and  impostors,  his  favorite,  Mr.  Bischofiswerder, 
was  a  member  ;  and  he  is  much  belied  if  he  did  not  resort 
to  conjuration  and  apparitions,  for  the  purpose  of  convert- 
ing the  King  to  his  views  of  policy,  which  were  very 
versatile  and  changeable,  and  not  unfrequently  as  mysteri- 
ous and  unintelligible  as  his  belief  in  necromacy,  magic, 
and  an  immaterial  world.  Some  odious  and  many  ludicrous 
instances  of  the  delusions  practiced  to  engage  the  King  in 
the  war,  and  nearly  as  many  of  similar  artifices  to  wean 
him  from  the  prosecution  of  it,  were  circulated  and  credit- 

*  Lord  Lauderdale  was  requested  by  the  Duke  of  York  to  supply 
an  epitaph  for  her  monument.  He  applied  to  me,  and  I  believe  the 
lines  I  wrote  are  engraved  on  the  tablet  in  Weybridge  or  Walton 
Church,  erected  to  her  memory. 


THE  ILLUMINES.  53 


ed  throughout  Europe.  Many,  no  doubt,  were  invented  ; 
and  most,  in  all  likelihood,  considerably  heightened  by  pub- 
lic report;  but  there  could  hardly  be  so  much  exagger- 
ation without  some  truth,  and  the  notorious  prevalence  of 
such  superstitions  in  all  the  courts  of  Germany  rendered 
the  stories  probable  enough,  though  I  neither  recollect  the 
details,  nor  have  examined  the  authorities  on  which  they 
rested,  sufficiently  to  justify  my  recording  them  as  facts. 
Some  years  afterward  it  became  a  fashion  or  an  artifice 
among  the  servile  apologists  of  tyranny,  to  connect  the 
sect  of  Illumines,  and  all  their  ramifications,  first  with  free- 
masonry, and  afterward  with  the  disorganizing  and  irre- 
ligious principles  of  the  revolutionary  clubs  in  Prance.  I 
beheve  they  were  entirely  distinct  in  their  origin,  their 
objects,  and  their  progress.  It  is,  at  least,  whimsical,  that 
the  only  known  practical  result  of  such  visionary  practices 
on  the  events  of  the  political  world,  was  to  prevail  on  many 
petty,  and  one  important  court  of  Germany,  to  inflict  the 
calamities  of  war  on  mankind,  for  the  purpose  of  rescuing 
the  institutions  of  monarchy,  popery,  and  nobility  from 
destruction.  If  the  more  recent  secret  societies  of  Tugen- 
bund  in  Germany,  and  Carbonari  in  Italy,  really  sprang 
out  of  them  (a  supposition  in  itself  highly  questionable), 
even  those  associations  were  formed  in  an  anti-Gallican 
spirit,  and  contrived  for  the  purpose  of  resisting  the  power 
of  Napoleon,  in  the  two  quarters  of  Europe  which  be- 
came the  theatres  of  their  machinations. 

In  1793  I  visited  Madrid,  and  my  subsequent  travels,  as 
well  as  some  accidental  circumstances,  have  made  me  better 
acquainted  with  the  events  and  characters  connected  with 
that  court  than  with  those  of  any  other  on  the  Continent. 


54  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 


Florida  Blanca  was  not  only  dismissed  and  exiled,  but 
so  strictly  confined  in  the  citadel  of  Pampeluna,  that  I  was 
not  allowed  to  transmit  a  common  letter  of  introduction  to 
him  from  Lord  Lansdown,  when  I  passed  through  that 
town  in  1793.  He  declined  seeing  me  at  Murcia  in  1803, 
and  after  some  correspondence  with  him  on  the  revolution 
of  1808,  at  which  period  he  became  President  of  the  Cen- 
tral Junta,  I  arrived  too  late  to  see  him  at  Seville,  where 
he  died  early  in  1809.  He  had  been  originally  promoted 
from  the  Embassy  at  Rome  to  be  Prime  Minister,  by 
Charles  III.,  probably  at  the  recommendation  of  his  pre- 
decessor ;  for  it  was  a  maxim  of  that  methodical  and 
tenacious  Prince  to  give  his  ministers,  on  their  dismissal, 
retirement,  or  death,  the  nomination  of  their  successors. 
Florida  Blanca  or  Moiiino  had  the  merits  of  his  early  pro- 
fession, the  law — application,  accuracy,  and  perseverance 
in  business.  He  improved  some  branches  of  the  adminis- 
tration, and  in  foreign  negotiations  showed  both  zeal  and 
spirit,  combined  with  an  adequate  knowledge  of  the  real 
interests  of  his  country.  He  had,  moreover,  the  dexterity 
to  evade,  and  on  occasions  even  to  resist  that  formidable 
power  the  Church,  without  provoking  its  resentment  or 
scandalizing  its  fanatical  adherents.  On  the  other  hand, 
he  was  harsh,  vindictive,  and  unjust,  very  jealous  of  his 
power,  and  mischievously  active  in  extending  ministerial 
authority  at  the  expense  and  in  defiance  of  the  few  re- 
maining institutions  of  the  state ;  all  of  which  he  endeav- 
ored to  humiliate  and  corrupt.  He  strove  to  convert  the 
grandees  into  mere  appendages  to  the  pageantry  of  the 
court,  the  magistrates  into  servile  instruments  of  the  min- 
ister of  the  day.     He  succeeded  but  too  well.     Charles 


FLORIDA  BLANCA.  55 


III.  enjoined  his  son  to  continue  him  in  office,  and  Charles 
ly.  considered  the  injunction  as  sacred.  It  required  time 
and  intrigue  to  conquer  his  repugnance  to  any  change. 
Perhaps  his  scruples  would  never  have  yielded,  but  for  an 
accident  which  gave  to  the  resolution  the  appearance,  and 
indeed  the  reality  of  an  act  of  justice  arising  out  of  virtu- 
ous indignation  at  misconduct.  Florida  Blanca  had  insti- 
gated a  prosecution  for  a  libel  against  a  certain  Marquis 
of  Mancas,  employed  formerly  as  Spanish  envoy  at  Copen- 
hagen. In  his  eagerness  to  procure  a  sentence  against 
him,  he  had  the  imprudence  to  dictate  it  in  a  letter  to  the 
President  or  acting  President  of  the  Council  of  Castile, 
whom  he  knew  to  be  subservient  to  his  designs.  While 
the  courier  was  on  his  way  from  the  Escurial  to  Madrid, 
the  President  died  of  an  apoplexy.  The  letter  being 
directed  to  the  title  of  office,  not  to  the  name  of  the  indi- 
vidual, was  delivered  to  and  opened  by  the  next  in  succes- 
sion,* to  whom  the  duty  of  presiding  in  the  court  had 
devolved.  He  happened  to  be  either  an  upright  magis- 
trate, or  a  man  devoted  to  the  party  already  formed  against 
the  prime  minister.  He  accordingly  dispatched  a  copy  of 
the  letter  to  the  King,  who,  justly  incensed  at  so  indecent 
an  interference  with  the  course  of  justice,  and  urged  no 
doubt  by  the  Queen,  overcame  all  scruples  of  breaking  his 
promise  to  his  father,  and  first  removed  and  then  banished 

*  The  story  as  here  related  was  told  meat  Burgos  ia  1804,  by 
Mancas,  and  has  been  confirmed  to  me  by  others.  I  had  inserted  it  as 
a  preliminary  note  to  Florida  Blanca's  statement  of  his  administration 
in  MS.,  which  I  lent  to  Mr.  Cox ;  and  that  complier  printed  ray  note, 
without  asking  my  permission,  together  with  the  papers  of  the  minis- 
ter, in  his  History  of  the  House  of  Bourbon,  in  Spain. 


56  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 

and  imprisoned  the  premier.  The  motives  of  the  Queen  were 
not  so  pure  as  those  professed  by  her  party,  and  really  act- 
ed upon  by  her  husband,  her  amorous  constitution  had  been 
well  known  to  the  old  king.  It  could  be  no  secret  to  his 
Minister.  Charles  III.  used  to  smile  at  the  simplicity  of 
his  son,  who  is  said  frequently  to  have  remarked  to  him 
that  princes  were  exempt  from  the  lot  to  which  too  many 
husbands  were  exposed;  first,  because  their  wives  were 
more  strictly  educated  than  private  women  ;  and,  secondly, 
because,  if  viciously  inclined,  they  could  seldom  find  any 
royal  personages  with  whom  they  could  indulge  such  evil 
propensities.  To  such  remarks  the  old  man  would  sudden- 
ly but  archly  reply  by  bantering  the  prince*  on  his  sim- 
plicity, or  by  muttering  a  favorite  maxim  of  his  own,t  by 
no  means  complimentary  to  the  chastity  of  the  fair  sex. 
Among  the  lovers  of  the  Princess  of  the  Asturias,  whom 
Charles  III.  had  from  time  to  time  removed  from  the  court, 
was  a  young  Garde  du  Corps  of  the  name  of  Godoy,  a 
native  of  Badajoz.  His  younger  brother,  Don  Manuel, 
was  in  the  same  service,  and  undertook  to  convey  the  love 
letters  of  his  exiled  brother  to  his  roval  mistress.  But  her 
passion  was  not  of  a  character  to  be  long  satisfied  with 
expressions  of  tenderness  from  an  absent  lover.  Don  Man- 
uel perhaps  thought  that  he  should  promote  the  interests  of 
his  brother,  as  he  unquestionably  did  his  own,  more  effect- 
ually, by  imitating  his  example  than  obeying  his  injunc- 
tions. In  short,  he  supplanted  him  in  the  affections  of  his 
mistress,  and  at  the  accession  of  her  husband  to  the  throne 
was  known  at  court  to  be  her  established  lover.  Count 
Florida  Blanca  had  too  much  sagacity  not  to  discover  the 
*  parlas,  Carlos  que  toDto,  que  eres.  f  Tadas,  si  todas  son  patas. 


GODOY.  57 


character  of  the  young  favorite.  He  perceived,  with 
much  chagrin,  that  mere  honors  and  distinctions  would  not 
satisfy  him,  that  he  aimed  at  a  share  at  least  of  political 
power.  But  the  old  minister  was  too  jealous  to  yield  even 
to  the  obvious  policy  of  admitting  any  partner  in  that  con- 
cern. He  had  such  plausible  grounds  in  the  extreme 
ignorance  as  well  as  inferior  rank  of  his  youthful  candi- 
date for  office,  that  he  could  not  but  succeed  for  a  time  in 
excluding  him  from  a  seat  in  Council.  The  ruin,  there- 
fore, of  Florida  Blanca  became  necessary  to  the  advance- 
ment of  Godoy.  Hence  the  eagerness  of  the  Queen  to 
accumulate  charges  against  him,  and  to  lay  the  catalogue 
of  his  offenses  before  the  eyes  of  the  King.  She  did  not, 
however,  venture  to  elevate  Godoy  at  once  to  the  highest 
situation  in  the  state.  The  Marquis  of  Aranda,  an  Arra- 
gonese  Grandee,  was  designated,  by  his  reputation  and  the 
choice  of  the  King,  as  the  natural  successor  of  an  experienc- 
ed prime  minister.  It  was,  however,  suspected  that  he,  on 
this  occasion,  stooped  to  purchase  the  nomination  by  prom-  ' 
ising  to  discover  in  the  young  Garde  du  Corps  great  apti- 
tude for  political  affairs,  and  to  recommend  him  to  a  high 
place  in  the  councils  of  his  sovereign.  Under  his  auspices, 
Godov  was  introduced  into  the  cabinet.  Aranda  was  in 
real  character  an  Arragonese,  stiff*,  unbending,  and  sarcas- 
tic ;  in  politics  a  Frenchman,  attached  from  habit  and  con- 
viction to  a  strict  alliance  between  the  two  countries ;  in 
principle  a  modern  philosopher,  well  read  in  Voltaire, 
d'Alembert,  and  Helvetius  ;  jealous  of  the  Church,  inveter- 
ate against  the  Jesuits,  who  had  been  suppressed  during 
his  first  ministry,  and  not  insensible  to  the  somewhat  exag- 
gerated praises  lavished  upon  him  for  that  measure  by 


58  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 

those  who  had  rendered  infidelity  fashionable  in  Paris, 
and  afterward  connected  it  in  some  degree  with  the  cause 
of  the  French  Revolution.  In  spite,  therefore,  of  his 
attachment  to  the  House  of  Bourbon  and  his  intimacy  with 
good  company  at  Paris,  he  was  less  disposed  to  an  anti- 
revolutionary  confederacy  than  almost  any  European  min- 
ister, and  certainly  than  any  in  the  service  of  a  court  con- 
nected by  ties  of  blood  with  that  of  Versailles.  Godoy,  in 
quest  of  an  opportunity  for  making  his  importance  felt  by 
differing  with  the  premier,  perceived  that  the  instances 
of  foreign  powers,  the  increasing  excesses  of  the  French 
democracy,  and  the  national  as  well  as  religious  feelings 
of  the  Spaniards,  would  soon  make  war  inevitable.  He 
recommended  it  in  council,  and  thus  ingratiated  himself 
with  a  powerful  and  increasing  party.  It  is  said  that 
Aranda,  heedless  of  consequences,  and  forgetful  of  the 
policy  which  had  induced  him  to  acquiesce  in  the  young 
favorite's  advancement,  could  not  contain  his  surprise  at 
his  venturing  to  differ  on  such  topics,  and  treated  both  the 
advice  and  adviser  with  utter  scorn  and  contempt.  If  so, 
he  very  much  miscalculated  his  strength.  His  pacific 
system,  however  reasonable,  was  easily  overthrown.  The 
fears  of  the  great,  and  the  fanaticism  of  the  vulgar,  ap- 
plauded the  new  councilor  for  questioning  its  propriety. 
Friend  and  foe  combined  to  render  it  impracticable.  The 
execution  of  Louis  XVI.  seemed  to  justify  and  even  to 
popularize  a  declaration  of  war,  and  English,  German,  and 
emigrant  influence  was  exerted  to  procure  the  dismissal  of 
Aranda.  He  was  accordingly  removed,  or,  as  the  Spanish 
phrase  is,  indulged  or  regaled*  with  his  retirement.     The 

*  Jubilado. 


ARANDA.— O'REILLY.  59 


gentleness  of  his  fall  seemed  to  imply  that  Godoy,  now 
Duke  of  Alcudia,  was  not  altogether  unmindful  of  his  good 
offices,  that  he  was  more  presumptuous  and  aspiring  than 
vindictive  or  ungrateful  in  his  nature.  Aranda  lost  neither 
rank  nor  emolument  by  his  dismissal ;  but  he  had  impaired 
the  dignity  and  lessened  the  weight  of  his  character  by 
this  second  short-lived  administration,  which  in  truth  only 
paved  the  way  for  an  obnoxious  upstart  and  favorite. 

Although  I  visited  the  lines  at  Yrun  and  St.  Jean  de 
Luz,  I  know  little  of  the  events  of  the  war,  and  less  of 
the  Spanish  generals  who  commanded.  Ricardos*  was 
reckoned  an  accomplished  officer,  the  Count  de  la  Union 
a  young  man  of  spirit  and  enterprise.  General  Caro, 
whom  I  did  know,  was  a  rough,  bold  veteran,  whose 
notions  of  war  were  borrowed,  I  suspect,  from  the  bull- 
fights, the  theatre  of  the  exploits  of  his  youth.  O'Reilly 
was  once  named  General-in-chief,  but  died  (some  idly  said 
of  poison)  in  his  way  to  the  command.  When  a  young 
Irish  t  adventurer,  and  ensign  in  the  Spanish  service,  he 
saved  his  life  in  a  battle  in  Italy,  by  persuading  the  dra- 
goon who  had  struck  him  down,  and  was  about  to  dis- 
patch him,  that  he  was  the  Duke  of  Arcos,  the  com- 
mander of  the  Spanish  forces.     He  gained  the  favor  of 

*  His  family  name  was  Richards ;  he  was  of  English  or  Irish 
extraction,  and  in  the  line,  if  I  am  not  mistaken,  of  a  baronetcy. 

f  Any  one  conversant  with  the  modern  military  history  of  Spain, 
or  with  good  society  in  that  countiy,  must  be  struck  with  the  large 
proportion  of  their  eminent  officers  who  were  either  born  or  descend- 
ed from  those  who  were  born  in  Ireland.  The  comment  which  that 
circumstance  furnishes  upon  our  exclusive  and  intolerant  laws,  is  ob- 
Tious  enough. 


60  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 

the  court  he  served  by  rejecting,  when  prisoner,  all  the 
offers  of  Laudon  to  engage  him  in  the  Imperial  service. 
His  exploits  at  Algiers  were  not  brilliant,  and  those  in 
Louisiana  were  said  to  have  done  little  credit  to  his 
humanity.  As  governor  of  Cadiz,  he  displayed  great  ac- 
tivity, vigor,  and  sagacity,  and  obtained  a  high  reputation 
for  political  wisdom  and  courage.  This  and  the  favor  of 
Charles  III.,  who  was  wont  to  praise  him  for  having,  like 
a  large  elm  which  stood  inconveniently  in  the  middle  of 
the  road  at  Aranjuez,  but  which  he  would  never  allow  to 
be  felled,  no  friend  but  himself,  procured  for  him  twice 
the  appointment  of  Prime  Minister.  In  both  instances  the 
nomination  was  recalled,  and  another  substituted,  before 
he  could  arrive  at  Madrid.  His  death,  on  the  way  to  the 
command  of  an  army,  seemed  to  complete  the  fatality 
attending  the  attainment  of  all  his  objects  of  ambition. 
He  was  quick,  coarse,  and  shrewd  ;  thoroughly  acquainted 
with  the  court  and  people  with  whom  he  had  to  deal,  and 
of  parts  and  courage  to  avail  himself  of  his  knowledge  ; 
but  he  was  not  exempt  from  those  failings  in  taste  and 
judgment  which  are  so  often  objected  to  his  countrymen, 
and  which  not  unfrequently  mar  the  fortunes  of  men, 
otherwise  best  qualified  to  succeed  in  the  race  for  power 
and  distinction.  The  triumph  of  the  Spaniards  in  Roussil- 
lon  was  short-lived.  The  French  became  the  invaders  in 
the  beginning  of  1794,  and  although  the  abhorrence  of 
infideUty  was  in  full  force  throughout  Spain,  and  the  ad- 
joining province  of  Catalonia  distinguished  for  anti-Gal- 
lican  as  well  as -military  spirit,  yet  the  French  had  great 
prospects  of  success  from  the  jealousy  subsisting  between 
the  Catalans  and  the  regular  forces,  from  the  imperfect 


FRENCH  INVASION  OF  SPAIN.  61 

equipment  and  irregular  pay  of  the  troops,  from  the 
dearth  of  military  talent  in  the  Spanish  officers,  and  from 
the  propensity  to  intrigue  and  cabal  in  the  councils  of 
Charles  IV.  The  danger  grew  manifest,  and  the  war 
unpopular.  The  Catalans  offered  to  defend  their  for- 
tresses and  frontiers  at  their  own  expense,  but  annexed 
two  conditions  :  first,  of  naming  their  own  officers ;  sec- 
ond, of  the  removal  of  all  Castilian  as  well  as  emigrant 
troops  from  the  principality.  Such  a  hint  that  the  means 
of  defense  were  only  to  be  purchased  by  a  surrender  of 
some  portion  of  authority,  was  well  calculated  to  check 
the  martial  ardor  of  an  enervated  court.  It  contributed 
to  dispose  the  favorite  to  a  peace  with  the  Republic  of 
France,  now  rendered  a  shade  less  obnoxious  bv  the 
downfall  of  Robespierre,  and  the  triumph  of  a  party  more 
equivocal  in  its  principles,  but  less  revolting  and  sanguin- 
ary in  its  conduct.  The  revolution  in  France  of  July, 
1794,  better  known  by  the  name  of  the  9th  of  Thermidor, 
and  the  softened  tone  of  the  succeeding  governments,  had, 
in  the  course  of  a  year,  together  with  the  military  triumphs 
of  the  revolutionary  armies,  reconciled  or  compelled  some 
powers  to  sue  for  peace  and  court  the  alliance  of  the  Re- 
public. The  Great  Duke  of  Tuscany,  at  the  suggestion  of 
Manfredini  (an  enlightened  pupil  of  the  Emperor  Joseph's 
school),  who  was  his  preceptor,  favorite,  and  chamberlain, 
concluded  a  treaty  with  France  in  February,  1795.  The 
King  of  Prussia  followed  that  example  before  the  summer 
was  over.  Spain  had  equal  motives  and  greater  means 
of  appeasing  the  hostility  of  the  fierce  democracy.  Her 
provinces  were  defenseless,  but  she  had  colonies  and 
money  wherewith  to  ransom  them.     That  favorite  French 


~N 


63  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 

object— a  strict  union  with  Spain,  or,  to  speak  more  cor- 
rectly, a  feverish  dread  of  any  permanent  alliance  be- 
tween Spain  and  England — had  devolved  from  the  Bour- 
bons to  the  Demagogues.  One  of  the  leaders  who  had 
signalized  himself  in  the  overthrow  of  Robespierre  was 
likely,  through  the  same  propitious  influence  which  had 
animated  his  exertions  on  that  memorable  occasion,  to 
lend  a  favorable  ear  to  any  overture  from  Spain.  The 
lady  who  bestowed  her  hand  upon  Tallien,  as  the  in- 
centive or  reward  of  his  glorious  conduct  on  the  9th  of 
Thermidor,  and  who,  if  she  had  some  of  the  frailties,  had 
all  the  generosity  and  gentleness,  with  a  double  portion  of 
the  beauty  and  grace  which  distinguished  her  country- 
women, was  a  Spaniard  by  birth.  The  noble  use  which 
she  made  of  the  influence  which  her  exquisite  beauty  so 
naturally  commanded,  should  have  rescued  her  from  that 
neglect  in  which  the  hypocrisy  of  the  Consular  and  Im- 
perial, and  the  ingratitude  of  the  Bourbon  governments 
have  left  her  for  years.  She  was  the  daughter  of  Cabar- 
rus, a  French  merchant,  whose  adventurous  spirit  and 
talents  procured  him  some  of  the  honors  and  more  of  the 
vicissitudes  of  a  statesman  in  Spain.  He  had  planned  and 
founded  the  Bank  of  San  Carlos,  connected  himself  with 
many  leading  characters  in  the  country,  and  was  banished 
and  confined  on  the  suppression  or  failure  of  that  establish- 
ment. He  was  subsequently  removed  to  Madrid,  where  he 
was  still  under  arrest  when,  at  the  instance  of  the  Count- 
ess of  Galvez,  the  Duke  of  Alcudia  employed  him  to  con- 
vey an  overture  to  the  Republic  by  means  of  the  corre- 
spondence which  subsisted  between  him  and  his  daughter, 
Madame  Tallien.     He  acquitted  himself  so  well  of  that 


PRINCE  OF  THE  PEACE.  63 

and  subsequent  commissions,  that  the  Spanish  Ministry 
admitted  his  contested  claims  on  the  State,  and  liquidated 
them  to  the  amount  of  6,000,000  of  reals.  He  was  no 
doubt  consulted  on  the  terms  of  the  peace,  and  his  daugh- 
ter contributed  to  the  completion  of  the  treaty  (a  work 
well  suited  to  her  gentle  mind),  which  was  signed,  to  the 
surprise  of  the  Austrian  and  English  Governments,  on  the 
22d  of  July,  1795,  at  Basle  in  Switzerland.  Popular  ap- 
plauses and  court  honors  lavished  on  Godoy  for  this  treaty 
made  ample  amends  for  the  remonstrances  of  the  allies 
with  which  he  was  harassed,  and  the  invectives  of  the  En- 
glish press  by  which  he  was  assailed.  He  was  created 
Prince  of  the  Peace.  The  vocabulary  of  titles  was  ex- 
hausted to  express  the  favor  of  the  court,  and  privileges  of 
a  new  and  ludicrous  nature  were  invented  to  mark  the 
sense  entertained  by  his  Sovereign  of  his  wisdom  and 
success.  As  a  specimen  may  be  selected,  the  right  of 
bearing  an  image  of  Janus  before  him  on  all  solemn  occa- 
sions— an  emblem,  says  the  patent,  of  his  knowledge  and 
foresight,  which,  like  that  false  divinity,  reflects  on  the 
past  by  regarding  what  is  behind  him;  and  provides 
for  the  future  by  surveying  equally  all  that  is  before 
him.  He  seemed,  however,  at  that  time  desirous  of  de- 
serving the  unparalleled  honors  he  had  attained,  for  he 
endeavored  to  confer  some  benefits  on  the  community 
from  which  he  derived  them.  At  least  his  administra- 
tion, from  the  conclusion  of  the  treaty  of  Basle  to  the 
temporary  decline  of  his  favor  in  1798,  showed,  notwith- 
standing the  bad  policy  and  worse  conduct  of  a  war 
with  England,  more  disposition  to  reform  abuses  and  to 
improve  the  condition  of  the  people  of  Spain,  and,  above 


64  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 


all,  to  reward,  encourage,  and  promote  every  kind  of  use- 
ful talent,  than  is  discernible  in  any  other  epoch  of  his  long 
possession  of  power.  Possibly,  some  occurrences  at  court 
reminded  him  that  his  tenure  of  authority  was  precarious, 
and  that  his  mistress  was  neither  from  his  example  nor 
her  own  nature  likely  to  prove  a  model  of  fidelity.  Such 
apprehensions  might  induce  him  to  court  popularity,  to 
gain  partisans,  and  to  build  his  power,  if  possible,  on  more 
honorable  and  solid  foundations.  Symptoms  of  jealousy 
were  remarked  at  a  very  early  period  ;  but  the  Queen  had 
taken  such  pains  to  ingratiate  her  lover  w4th  the  King, 
that  she  then  and  at  many  subsequent  periods  found  it  diffi- 
cult to  impair,  much  more  to  destroy,  the  work  of  her  own 
contrivance.  Through  their  mysterious  connection,  the 
ascendency  of  Godoy  over  the  mind  of  the  King  seemed  as 
strong  as  that  he  had  assumed  over  his  mistress.  Yet  his 
amours,  which  exasperated  the  latter  as  infidelities,  might, 
he  well  knew,  be  employed  to  shake  the  confidence  of 
Charles,  who  had  been  taught  to  revere  the  austerity  of 
his  morals  as  much  as  to  admire  the  extent  of  his  capacity. 
It  has,  indeed,  been  asserted  that  his  marriage  with  the 
daughter  of  the  Infant  Don  Louis  originated  in  a  malicious 
trait  of  jealousy  of  the  Queen.  The  story  goes,  that  she 
brought  the  King  unexpectedly  to  the  apartment  of  the 
favorite,  and  surprised  him  when  supping  tete-d-tete  with 
Mademoiselle  Tudo,  a  lady  of  extraordinary  beauty*  to 
whom  he  was  clandestinely  married,  though  some  say  by 

*  She  was  daughter  of  an  artillery  officer  of  some  merit,  and  had 
come  with  her  mother,  a  widow,  to  solicit  a  pension  at  St.  Ildefonso, 
where  she  was  introduced  by  the  Baylio  Valdez,  Minister  of  Marine, 
to  the  Duke  of  Alcudia. 


rRINCE  OF  THE  PEACE.— TUDO.  65 

a  contract  which  the  laws  would  consider  as  invalid ;  that 
the  King  was  partly  shocked  and  partly  diverted  at  the 
discovery;  that  he  shortly  afterward,  at  the  suggestion  of 
the  Queen,  with  a  view  of  providing,  w^ithout  the  peril  of 
a  deadly  sin,  for  the  incontinence  of  his  favorite,  insisted 
on  matrimony,  and  condescended  to  offer  his  young  and 
recently  acknowledged  cousin  for  a  bride  ;  that  the  Prince 
of  the  Peace,  not  daring  to  acknowledge  his  union  with  the 
Tudo,  and  still  less  to  decline  the  royal  alliance  without 
alleging  some  such  insurmountable  bar,  prevailed  on  the 
wife  of  his  affections  to  suppress  the  truth,  and  allowed 
Charles,  in  his  zeal  to  rescue  him  from  more  venial  and 
ordinary  vices,  to  involve  him  in  the  heinous  and  trouble- 
some sin  of  bigamy.  I  do  not  vouch  for  the  truth  of  the 
tale.  Well-informed  persons  believed  it,  and  related  it  to 
me.  It  is  certain  that  the  ostensible  marriage  with  the 
Princess,  which  took  place  in  1797,  never  interrupted  his 
connection  w^ith  the  Tudo.  During  his  prosperity,  she  was 
generally  lodged  in  a  royal  palace  or  in  an  adjoining  apart- 
ment. After  his  exile  and  adversity,  she  followed  him  to 
Rome,  and  has  been  always  treated  by  him,  his  friends, 
and  even  the  Royal  Family,  as  a  personage  in  some  sort 
legitimately  entitled  to  the  society,  tenderness,  and  protec- 
tion of  the  Prince  of  the  Peace.  His  more  splendid  alli- 
ance did  not  render  him  more  secure  of  the  countenance 
of  favor  at  court,  or  less  disposed  to  seek  for  such  assist- 
ance as  talents  in  office,  and  an  enlightened  government 
could  bestow.  He  consulted  M.  Cabarrus  on  the  formation 
of  a  new^  Ministry  nearly  at  the  epoch  of  his  nuptials,  and 
that  judicious  and  well-informed  friend  recommended  the 
Spaniards  best  quahfied  to  discharge  the  trust  with  credit 


66  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 

to  his  choice  and  benefit  to  the  country.  Such  were  Don 
Francisco  Saavedra,  and  Don  Gaspar  Melchor  de  Jovel- 
lanos.  The  first,  with  whom  I  was  afterward  sUghtly  ac- 
quainted at  Seville,*  had  filled  high  offices  in  the  colonies, 
and  enjoyed  at  home  and  abroad  great  reputation  for  abili- 
ties and  integrity.  The  French  always  took  a  particular 
interest  in  his  fate,  though  his  principles  led  him  to  concur 
in  the  national  resistance  to  the  government  which  Napo- 
leon endeavored  in  1808  to  impose  upon  Spain. 

Jovellanos,  whom  I  knew  more  intimately,  and  respect- 
ed most  sincerely,  was  an  Asturian  of  good  family,  edu- 
cated at  the  Colegios  Mayores,  patronized,  if  I  mistake  not, 
by  his  countryman  Campomanes,  and  distinguished  at  an 
early  period  of  life  for  his  literary  productions  in  verse 
and  prose,  his  taste  in  the  arts,  his  proficiency  in  the  law, 
and  his  extensive  knowledge  in  all  branches  of  political 
economy.  Great  as  were  his  intellectual  endowments,  his 
moral  qualities  were  in  unison  with  them.  The  purity  of 
his  taste  was  of  a  piece  with  that  of  his  mind,  and  the 
correctness  of  his  language  a  picture  of  his  well-regulated 
life.  In  the  persuasive  smoothness  of  his  eloquence,  and 
the  mild  dignity  of  his  demeanor,  one  seemed  to  read  the 
serenity  of  his  temper,  and  the  elevation  of  his  character. 
Erant  mores  qualis  facundia.  He  had  filled  ofiices  in 
the  magistracy,  and  sometimes  as  a  reward,  sometimes  as  a 

*  In  1810.  When  in  1803,  I  asked  General  Beurnonville  at 
Madrid  to  use  his  interest  in  mitigating  the  imprisonment  of  Jovel- 
lanos, he  told  me  that  he  had  instructions  from  his  court  to  exert  all 
he  had  in  favor  of  Saavedra,  in  the  first  instance  ;  and  that  until  ho 
was  liberated,  he  did  not  conceive  himself  authorized  in  making  any 
application  for  his  fellow-sufferer. 


THE  TRINCE  OF  THE  PEACE.— JOVELLANOS.  67 

contrivance  for  removing  him,  the  superintendence  of  pub- 
lic institutions  in  the  provinces  had  been  confided  to  his 
care.  He  discharged  these  various  duties  with  great  zeal 
and  intelligence,  and  had  in  all  given  general  satisfaction ; 
for  the  complacency  with  which  he  contemplated  the  suc- 
cess of  a  member  of  his  family,  a  student  of  his  college,  or 
a  native  of  his  province,  never  degenerated  into  partiality. 
It  was  a  proof  of  the  amiable  affections  of  his  nature, 
which  disposed  him  to  rejoice  at  the  merit  and  reward  of 
such  as  he  was  directly  or  remotely  connected  with.  If 
such  feelings  ever  biased  his  choice  of  a  public  servant, 
interest  certainly  never  had  that  effect.  He  offended  the 
Queen  by  his  uncourtly  austerity  on  such  points.  His. 
refusal  to  promote  her  creatures  passed  with  her  for  intol- 
erable rudeness ;  and  w^hen  he  asked  in  what  school  some 
ignorant  man  whom  she  recommended  for  the  magistracy, 
had  acquired  the  elements  of  his  profession,  she  tartly  an- 
swered, "  In  the  same  college  where  you  studied  polite- 
ness." The  sarcasm  was  unmerited.  None  could  re- 
proach Jovellanos  with  want  of  urbanity  or  courtesy  but 
such  as  exacted  under  those  names  an  obsequiousness  in 
manner  and  a  subserviency  in  action  to  which  no  honor- 
able nature  will  submit.  He  has  been  somewhat  more 
plausibly  accused  of  overstrained  scruples  and  ill-timed 
remonstrances  on  the  licentious  conduct  of  the  Prince  of 
the  Peace.  He  has  even  been  taxed  with  ingratitude,  for 
not  protecting  from  the  displeasure  of  the  court  a  man  to 
whose  interference  he,  in  some  measure,  owed  his  eleva- 
tion in  it.  He  no  doubt  saw  the  influence  of  the  favorite 
decline  with  some  indifference.  Perhaps  he  was  more 
observant  of  the  private  vices  which  lowered  the  charac- 


68  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 

ter  of  his  government,  than  nnindful  of  that  capricious  ex- 
ertion of  pubHc  virtue  which  had  raised  him  and  Saavedra 
to  a  seat  in  it.  But  he  was  never  suspected  of  accel- 
erating what  was  then  considered  as  the  fall  of  the  favor- 
ite, nor  did  it  depend  on  him  to  prevent  it.  He  did  not 
sacrifice  his  place,  or  his  hopes  of  doing  his  country  some 
service,  to  one  to  whom  he  had  some  obligations,  bu*t  for 
whom  he  could  not  feel  much  respect.  Such  is  the  sum 
and  front  of  his  offending,  even  if  the  facts  alleged,  which 
are  disputable,  were  granted.  It  was  natural  for  the 
Prince  of  the  Peace  to  resent  his  neglect,  but  the  offense, 
consisting  entirely  of  omissions,  was  surely  not  of  a  mag- 
nitude to  justify,  to  palliate,  or  even  to  account  for,  the 
persecutions  to  which  Jovellanos  was  exposed  on  the 
return  of  the  Prince  to  power.  As  it  must  be  acknowl- 
edged that  the  Prince  was  seldom  guilty  of  any  act  ap- 
proaching to  cruelty,  I  am  inclined  to  attribute  the  impris- 
onment of  Jovellanos  in  Majorca,  and  the  contumely  and 
insult  to  which  he  was  there  subjected,  chiefly  to  the 
Queen.  Saavedra  told  his  friend,  when  they  were  once 
more  united  in  the  councils  of  their  country  at  Seville,  in 
1809,  that  the  Queen  was  unaccountably  persuaded  that 
he  (Jovellanos)  was  the  author  or  the  patron  of  an  ob- 
scene libel  printed  at  Paris  and  quite  unknown  to  him 
which  was  entitled  Les  trois  Reines,  and  contained  a  slan- 
derous description  of  the  private  and  political  vices  of  the 
Queens  of  France,  Naples,  and  Spain.  She  hardly  con- 
cealed her  aversion  to  him,  even  while  he  was  Minister. 
'  In  truth,  the  purity  of  his  private  life  was  not  likely  to 
reconcile  her  to  the  inflexibility  of  his  public  principles. 
He  was,  if  not  in  creed,  in  character  and  political  austerity, 


THE  PRINCE  OF  THE  PEACE.— MALLO.  69 

a  Jansenist,  and  connected  with  many  of  that  sect,  who, 
in  Spain,  as  in  other  Roman  Catholic  countries,  have 
always  been  found  the  least  corruptible  and  most  consist- 
ent party  in  the  state.  What  were  the  causes  of  that 
estrangement  between  the  Prince  of  the  Peace  and  the 
Queen  may  not  be  easy  to  ascertain.  The  effects  became 
obvious  early  in  1798.  There  were  good  grounds  for 
jealousy  on  both  sides.  The  Prince,  after  his  marriage 
with  the  Princess,  still  remained  attached  to  the  Tudo,  as 
the  wdfe  of  his  choice  was  called ;  and  the  Queen,  before 
his  separation  from  the  court,  had  become  enamored  of  an 
officer  of  the  name  of  Mallo,  whose  gallantry,  to  use  the 
most  delicate  term,  had  nothing  moral  or  intellectual  to 
recommend  it.  She  is  said  to  have  lavished  sums  of 
money  on  her  new  favorite.  A  story  was  current  at  Ma- 
drid which,  if  true,  would  at  once  prove  that  the  Prince  of 
the  Peace  was  aware  of  her  infidelities  to  him,  and  dis- 
posed to  revenge  himself  in  a  way  no  woman  could  easily 
submit  to  or  forgive.  The  King,  the  Queen,  and  the 
Prince  of  the  Peace,  said  this  tale,  were  at  a  window  in 
the  palace  of  Aranjuez,  when  Mallo  drove  by  in  his  cur- 
ricle. Charles  IV.  expressed  some  surprise  at  a  young 
officer  of  low  rank  and  narrow  fortune  possessing  so  brill- 
iant an  equipage ;  on  which  the  Prince  assured  his  Majes- 
ty that  it  was  easily,  though  somewhat  ludicrously,  to  be 
accounted  for.  "  An  old,  rich,  and  toothless  woman"  (for 
he  knew  the  Queen  had  a  set  of  teeth  from  Paris)  "  had 
fallen  madly  in  love  with  that  Mallo,  and  she  furnished 
him  with  many  equipages,  horses,  and  every  luxury  in 
which  he  had  a  mind  to  indulge."  Charles  laughed  im- 
moderately at  the  storv,  and  whenever  the  name  of  the 


70  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 

gallant  occurred,  was  eager  to  circulate  the  amusing  piece 
of  scandal,  which  diverted  him  exceedingly,  but  he  little 
knew  or  suspected  concerned  'him  and  his  so  nearly. 
The  anecdote  is,  perhaps,  too  dramatic  to  deserve  implicit 
credit.  It  was  believed  by  many  well-informed  persons, 
and  I  repeat  it  as  I  received  it.  Whether  from  resentment, 
jealousy,  or  fear,  the  Queen  was  supposed  at  that  period 
to  labor  hard  to  dispel  the  charm  she  had  been  at  such 
pains  to  form,  and  to  infuse  into  the  mind  of  the  King 
distrust  of  the  man  whom  she  had  recommended  so  suc- 
cessfully to  his  confidence,  and  who  was  now  alUed  by 
marriage  to  the  Royal  Family.  She  so  far  prevailed  that 
Charles  IV.  disparaged  in  conversation  those  talents  and 
services  he  had  formerly  prized  so  highly  and  extolled  so 
extravagantly.  He  is  represented  as  having  once  ex- 
pressed a  wish  that  some  one  would  throw  the  favorite  out 
of  the  window,  and  rid  him  of  so  troublesome  a  connec- 
tion. He  did  indeed  in  fact,  though  not  in  form,  forbid  his 
appearance  at  the  Sitios,  except  upon  special  permission 
or  invitation.  Yet  when  the  harsh  measures  usual  on  a 
change  of  ministry  in  Spain  are  considered  and  compared 
with  the  treatment  experienced  by  the  Prince  of  the  Peace 
on  this  occasion,  it  must  be  acknowledged  that  some  mys- 
terious link  of  love  or  fear  seems,  even  during  an  ostensi- 
ble separation  of  the  parties,  to  have  subsisted  between 
him  and  the  court.* 

In  the  meanwhile  the  Queen  was  more  capricious  and 
licentious  in  her  conduct.  Urquijo  who,  on  the  rupture 
with  England  in  1796,  had  returned  from  that  country  and 
become,  in  virtue  of  his  rank  in  the  public  office,  chief 

*  See  Appendix,  No.  II. 


URQUIJO.  71 


clerk,  acted  as  secretary  during  the  illness  of  his  principal, 
Don  Francisco  Saavedra.  That  minister  continued  ill  for 
some  time,  and  it  was  necessary  that  some  one  conversant 
with  the  routine  of  office  should,  according  to  usage,  read 
the  dispatches  to  their  Majesties.  To  give  Urquijo  the 
requisite  rank  for  such  an  honor,  he  was  nominally  ap- 
pointed embassador  to  the  Batavian  Republic,  and  attended 
standing  before  a  table  at  which  the  King  and  Queen  were 
seated  to  read  the  official  correspondence.  Urquijo  was 
young,  handsome,  and  well  made.  Her  Majesty  was  more 
struck  by  the  reader  than  edified  by  the  dispatches.  In 
defiance  of  etiquette,  if  not  of  propriety,  she  bade  him  take 
a  chair  and  read  the  papers  at  his  ease.  Such  condescen- 
sion was  the  forerunner  of  greater  favors.  He  was  soon 
Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs.  Saavedra  and  Jovellanos 
were  removed  and  banished ;  but  as  the  removal  of  both, 
especially  of  Saavedra,  was  preceded  by  illness,  many 
who  hated  the  Queen,  and  some  who  hated  the  Prince  of 
the  Peace,  ascribed  their  maladies  to  poison,  administered, 
according  to  the  version  of  the  former,  with  a  view  of 
facilitating  the  promotion  of  Urquijo,  and,  according  to  the 
equally  improbable  surmises  of  the  latter,  to  revenge  the^ 
ingratitude  and  elude  the  enmity  of  those  two  ministers 
toward  the  discarded  favorite.  Stories  of  poison  are  easily 
invented  and  readily  believed ;  but  not  only  the  atrocity 
of  the  crime,  but  the  difficulty  of  the  perpetration,  espe- 
cially in  the  cases  of  persons  surrounded  with  pomp  and 
ceremony,  should  dispel  all  suspicion  of  such  guilt,  unless 
it  be  substantiated  by  testimony,  and  corroborated  by  un- 
deniable circumstances.  The  Queen  of  Spain  could  ruin 
a  minister  without  such  difficult  practices.     If  the  Prince 


72  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 

had  any  prospect  of  resuming  his  favor  at  court,  he  knew 
that  court  too  well  to  apprehend  that  the  remonstrances 
of  grave  and  austere  ministers  would  be  any  bar  to  his 
resumption  of  power.  Whatever,  therefore,  might  be  the 
animosity  either  of  the  Queen  or  Prince  against  those  two 
ministers,  they  had  prospects  of  gratifying  it  without  re- 
sorting to  so  heinous,  and,  above  all,  so  dangerous  yet  so 
uncertain  a  crime.*  I  am  satisfied,  therefore,  that  the 
rumor  was  groundless  in  the  instance  of  these  ministers ; 
and  I  am  equally  inclined  to  disbelieve  many  other  tales  of 
similar  practices  of  the  Queen.  I  must,  however,  acknowl- 
edge that  a  Sicilian  of  the  name  of  Carappa,  suspected,  in 
1804,  of  gallantries  with  the  Princess  of  Asturias,  w^as  him- 
self persuaded  that  his  health  had  been  impaired  at  that 
time  by  potions  administered  to  him  by  the  contrivances 
of  the  Queen  of  Spain.  He  adduced  what  he  called  his 
proofs  to  me  at  Rome,  ten  years  afterward,  but  they  were 
not  convincing  to  my  mind,  though  I  believe  they  were  so 
to  his.  The  administration  of  Urquijo,  with  whom  I  was 
never  personally  acquainted,  lasted  longer  than,  according 
to  the  strange  stories  reported  of  him,  could  have  appeared 
probable  to  any  reasonable  man.  He  was  ignorant,  rash, 
and  presumptuous  in  the  extreme.  Averse  to  every  insti- 
tution of  the  country  and  every  opinion  of  the  people  he 
was  called  upon  to  govern,  he  determined,  nevertheless, 
to  slight  the  individuals,  as  well  as  to  overlook  the  precau- 
tions, most  necessary  to  the  execution  of  his  arduous  under- 
takings.    So  fanatically  hostile  was  he  to  the  Church  of 

*  Those  who  believe  in  the  story  must  acknowledge  the  difficulty 
and  uncertainty  of  an  attempt  to  poison  any  one,  inasmuch  as  neither 
Saavedra  nor  Jovellanos  died. 


URQUIJO.  ,  73 


Rome,  that  when,  heing  charge  d'affaires  in  London,  he 
first  heard  that  General  Bonaparte,  by  the  peace  of  To- 
lentino,  and  at  the  intervention  of  the  Spanish  embassador 
Azara,  had  spared  the  Papal  government,  he  ran  like  a 
maniac  from  his  house  for  more  than  a  mile  on  the  Ux- 
bridge  road,  and  threw  himself  in  despair  into  a  pond. 
Mr.  Carlisle*  the  surgeon,  who  told  me  the  story,  happen- 
ed to  pass  by  when  he  was  dragged  out  in  a  state  of 
insensibility,  and  superintended  his  recovery  by  the  means 
recommended  by  the  Humane  Society.  When  our  Secre- 
tary of  State  called  on  him,  he  made  a  point  of  receiving 
him  with  Paine's  Age  of  Reason,  magnificently  bound,  on 
the  table ;  and  Lord  Grenville  has  more  than  once  ac- 
counted to  me  for  the  low  opinion  he  entertains  of  Spanish 
politicians,  by  the  circumstance  of  Urquijo,  the  wildest  and 
most  incapable  man  he  ever  transacted  business  with, 
being  elevated  to  the  station  of  First  Minister.  Recom- 
mended to  the  Queen  by  his  personal  beauty  alone,  he  is 
said  to  have  slighted  her  advances,  and  throughout  his 
administration,  to  have  preferred,  even  to  ostentation,  the 
Princess  Branciaforte,  sister  of  the  Prince  of  the  Peace, 
his  most  dangerous  rival.  Intent  on  various  reforms — 
such  as  the  suppression  of  the  Inquisition  and  of  several 
monastic  institutions,  the  appointment  of  a  patriarch,  and 
the  transferrence  of  all  Spanish  causes  from  the  Dataria  at 

*  This  is  a  strange,  ahnost  an  incredible  story,  but  I  give  my  author- 
ity. I  made  Mr.  Carlisle  repeat  it  to  me  above  once,  and  he  men- 
tioned many  circumstances  attending  the  event,  and  assured  me  that 
he  had  maintained  an  intimacy  and  correspondence  with  Urquijo  ever 
after.  I  met  Mr.  Carlisle  at  the  house  of  Mr.  P.  Knight,  in  Soho- 
square. 


74  FOREIGN  KEMINISCENCEg. 

Rome  to  national  tribunals — he  began  by  removing  from 
office  and  from  court  those  men  whose  talents,  gravity,  and 
principles,  by  shedding  some  lustre  on  hia  measures,  might 
have  softened  the  oxlium  to  which  such  daring  innovations 
must  obviously  have  been  exposed.  He  seemed  to  look 
for  support  from  the  foreign  ministers  exclusively.  He 
was  much  connected  with  Valcknaer,  the  minister  from  the 
Batavian  Republic,  and  Borel,  the  Saxon  envoy.  At  the 
instance  of  the  latter,  he  engaged  in  a  negotiation  to  effect 
a  marriage  between  the  Prince  of  Asturias  and  a  princess 
of  Saxony,  with  whom  he  expected  a  considerable  dowry. 
The  King  and  Queen  were  brought  to  acquiesce  in  the 
design,  but  the  old  Elector  had  scruples  in  sending  his 
daughter  to  so  immoral  a  court.  He  was  reconciled  to 
the  measure  by  the  notable  expedient  of  marrying  his 
sister,  a  woman  of  fifty,  to  the  King  of  Spain^s  brother,  the 
Infant  Don  Antonio,  who  had  never  hitherto  been  allowed 
the  solace  of  a  wife,  or  indeed  any  other,  but  that  of 
cooking  and  eating  his  own  dinner,  and  killing  some  half 
tame  rabbits  for  it,  in  a  small  island  of  the  Tagus,  in 
Aranjuez,  set  apart  for  his  princely  diversion,  inasmuch 
as  both  his  father  and  his  elder  brother  had  always  been 
too  selfish  to  let  him  partake  of  their  sport.  The  scheme 
of  the  Saxon  marriages,  if  it  did  not  contribute  in  some 
degree  to  the  downfall  of  Urquijo,  shared  the  fate  of 
that  minister.  It  was  abandoned  on  his  disgrace,  and 
the  Saxon  minister,  after  being  unjustly  accused  of  pur- 
loining minerals  from  the  Museum,  and  exposed  to  many 
other  unmanly  and  ungenerous  persecutions,  went  mad, 
and  died  of  vexation  and  chagrin.  Urquijo,  from  self-suf- 
ficiency, was  always  confident  of  his  own  favor  at  court, 


URQUIJO.— THE  PRINCE  OF  THE  PEACE.  75 

and  of  the  weakness  of  his  adversaries,  especially  the 
Prince  of  the  Peace.  Though  warned  even  by  his  sister 
of  the  imprudence  of  such  a  step,  he  allowed  him  to 
re-appear  at  the  Sitios.  A  cabal  was  formed  between 
the  formidable  favorite,  the  Nuncio,  and  the  dignified 
clergy  who  dreaded  the  design  of  appointing  a  patriarch 
and  withdrawing  all  submission  to  the  Dataria  at  Rome. 
They  alarmed  Charles  IV.  with  the  prospect  of  a  schism 
in  the  church ;  and  it  is  said  that  a  remonstrance  against 
the  plans  of  the  reforming  minister,  and  a  labored  state- 
ment of  the  consequences  to  be  apprehended,  were  pre- 
sented by  the  Nuncio  to  the  King  himself  at  St.  Ilde- 
fonso,  when  Urquijo  had  proceeded  to  Madrid.  Whether 
the  Queen  was  a  party  to  this  intrigue  or  not,  I  do  not 
know.  From  returning  love  for  the  Prince,  or  from  fear, 
she  acquiesced ;  for  it  is  certain  that  Urquijo  was  dis- 
missed, banished,  and  imprisoned  in  the  citadel  of  Pampe- 
luna  in  1800,  and  that  from  that  period  the  Prince  of  the 
Peace,  who  recommended  his  cousin  Don  Pedro  Cevallos 
to  the  Foreign  Office,  and  was  himself  ever  after  recognized 
in  the  privacy  of  the  Royal  Family  by  the  endearing  name 
of  Manuelito,  recovered  all  his  pristine  power.  He  seemed 
less  desirous  to  exert  it  in  a  manner  creditable  to  himself 
and  useful  to  the  country.  He  had  been  recently  indebted 
to  the  clergy,  and  was  more  subservient  to  the  court  and 
Church  of  Rome  than  his  principles  or  temper  had  formerly 
led  him  to  be.  His  resentment  at  what  he  considered  to 
be  the  ingratitude  of  Jovellanos,  estranged  him  from  per- 
sons enlightened  by  literature  and  philosophy,  as  well  as 
from  that  austere  party  or  sect  in  Spain  who  may  be  des- 
ignated as  Jansenists.     Jovellanos  was  torn  from  his  re- 


76      -  FOREIGN  REMLNISCENCES. 

—  ■■■ I..-.I-I     .-  I      .      ■     ■>,  ■,,-...-—■-  I  .,,,  ,  .      ,.  .        ■  ,  ,       ■  I  li.— —    ■■    I-      I.        ■■■■■■      I  ■    ■       M 1^ 

treat  at  Gijon,  and  immured  in  the  dungeons  or  conventg 
of  Majorca,  with  the  contumelious  addition  to  the  sentence 
itself  (pronounced  without  trial,  and  even  charge),  that  he 
should  study  his  catechism  under  the  superintendence  of 
the  ignorant  inmates  of  a  monastery.  Persons  obnoxious  to 
the  favorite  or  to  the  Queen  were  denounced  to  the  Inqui- 
sition as  Jansenists,  and  exposed  to  all  the  terrific  forms 
and  proceedings  of  that  merciless  establishment.  It  must 
be  acknowledged,  that  in  the  instance  of  two  brothers  of 
the  name  of  La  Cuesta,  canons,  I  think,  of  Palencia,  that 
odious  but  independent  tribunal  disdained  to  become  the 
servile  instrument  of  ministerial  injustice,  and  manfully 
acquitted,  released,  and  indemnified  the  prisonors.  Truth 
is,  the  Prince  of  the  Peace  was  never  in  his  heart  a  friend 
of  the  Church  of  Rome,  nor  a  patron  of  the  Inquisition. 
Still  less  was  he  a  partisan  of  the  French,  though  his  cow- 
ardice and  vanity  occasionally  rendered  him  subservient 
to  their  designs.  It  was  no  doubt  at  their  instigation  that 
he  made  war  upon  Portugal.  So  elated  was  he  at  the 
petty  conquest  of  Olivenza,  that  he  not  only  indulged  his 
ostentation  by  sending  a  branch  of  orange  to  the  Queen,  but 
with  ludicrous  self-complacency  compared  himself  publicly 
to  the  great  King  of  Prussia,  accepted  the  extravagant 
compliments  of  the  French  as  sincere  marks  of  admiration, 
and  verily  persuaded  himself,  for  some  time,  that  his  mili- 
tary character  rendered  Spain  formidable  to  France  and  to 
the  Chief  Consul.  His  conduct  with  respect  to  his  allies, 
from  the  Portuguese  campaign,  and  still  more  from  the 
peace  of  Amiens,  was  a  medley  of  inconsistency,  presump- 
tion, temerity,  perfidy,  and  irresolution  almost  unequaled 
in  history.     He  at  one  time  assumed  a  tone  of  menace 


THE  PRINCE  OF  THE  PEACE.  in 

and  hostility,  which  in  the  circumstances  of  the  two  coun- 
tries was  quite  preposterous;  insisting  on  some  impracti- 
cable or  unreasonable  concession,  and  instructing  the  em- 
bassador to  declare  war  against  the  Republic  or  Empire ; 
at  others,  he  connived,  I  much  fear  with  the  approbation  of 
English  agents,  at  the  introduction  of  assassins,  the  accom- 
plices of  Georges,  into  France;  and  sometimes  he  truckled 
to  the  most  exorbitant  pretensions  of  the  French  Govern- 
ment, and  solicited  from  their  power  and  partiality  some 
unreasonable  personal  favor  for  himself.  He  had  hardly 
embroiled  his  country  in  a  second  war  with  England,  by 
an  unseasonable  compliance  with  the  humor  rather  than 
the  policy  of  Napoleon,  before  he  wantonly  affronted 
that  great  prince  by  a  public  proclamation,  and  yet  more 
sensibly  offended  him  by  a  proposal  of  a  confederacy 
against  France  with  a  Northern  Power.  The  French 
detected  that  design,  in  a  correspondence  which  they 
found  at  Berlin,  soon  after  their  armies  had  taken  posses- 
sion of  it,  though  Napoleon,  very  unaccountably,  never 
assigned  that  fact  in  public  or  in  private  as  an  exculpation 
of  his  subsequent  aggressions  on  Spain. 

In  the  meanwhile  the  attention  of  the  Prince  of  the 
Peace  was  absorbed  by  occupations  more  congenial  to 
his  taste  and  perhaps  better  suited  to  his  talents,  viz.,  the 
squabbles,  jealousies,  and  intrigues  of  the  Palace.  He 
soon  perceived  that  the  Prince  of  Asturias,  however  in- 
experienced and  apparently  insensible,  entertained  a  strong 
aversion  and  suspicion  of  him.  He  probably  conjectured, 
perhaps  he  ascertained,  that  such  hostile  feelings  were 
fomented  by  secret  and  occasional  communications  with 
the  grandees.     Some  of  that  class  plumed  themselves  on 


x 


78  FOREIGN  REMINISCENGES. 


marking  a  distinction,  immense  in  their  estimation,  between 
newly  acquired  and  ancient  hereditary  honors,  although 
their  own  titles  were  in  all  likelihood  originally  derived 
from  sources  as  impure  ;  they  studiously  conferred  on  the 
Prince  of  the  Peace,  in  all  intercourse  by  letter  or  con- 
versation, these  ceremonious  terms  of  respect  to  which  a 
Grandee  is  entitled  from  all,  and  generally  receives  from 
an  inferior,  but  they  carefully  abstained  from  all  those  of 
familiarity  and  fellowship  which  is  the  usage,  though  not 
the  legal  etiquette,  in  Spain  for  persons  equal  in  quality  to 
exchange  between  one  another.  He  was  with  them  Senor 
DuquBf  Senor  Principe,  Ussencia  or  Alteza ;  and  never 
"  ^w,"  or  any  other  word  implying  intimacy  and  equal- 
ity. Among  these  the  most  distinguished  was  the  Duke 
of  Infantado.  He  had  the  advantages  of  youth,  birth,  a 
princely  fortune,  a  good  education,  and  an  agreeable 
address.  His  pursuits  w^ere  rational  and  manly;  he  had 
some  ambition,  and  till  called  upon  to  take  an  active 
part  in  affairs,  was  thought  to  possess  great  capacity 
for  them,  combined  with  principles  that  would  direct 
it  to  the  benefit  of  his  country.  Perhaps  it  was  unfor- 
tunate for  the  formation  of  his  political  character,  that  he 
was  initiated  in  business  of  importance  by  a  confidential 
intercourse  with  Ferdinand.  The  false,  cowardly,  and 
vindictive  disposition  of  that  prince  was  calculated  to 
render  all  who  dealt  with  him  suspicious  and  irresolute 
ever  afterward.  At  the  period  of  his  marriage  in  1802, 
there  was  nothing  but  a  sinister  countenance  in  the  Prince 
of  Asturias  to  announce  those  odious  qualities  which  have 
caused  so  much  misery  to  his  subjects.  He  showed  little 
inclination  to  study,  and  still  less  to  sports  or  amusements. 


FERDINAND  VIL  79 


He  seldom  marked  the  slightest  preference  or  affection  to 
such  as  were  admitted  to  his  company.  Some  little  aptitude 
to  mathematics  was  observed  in  him,  and  he  was  said  to 
take  interest  in  the  scientific  part  of  fortification ;  but  it  was 
generally  believed  that  he  was  weak  both  in  character  and 

;  intellect,  and  such  a  persuasion  was  encouraged  at  court. 
I  have  been,  indeed,  assured  that  even  before  his  marriage, 

rand  during  an  illness  of  Charles  IV.  at  St.  Ildefonso,  a  plot 
was  matured  for  setting  him  aside,  or  at  least  postponing 
his  succession,  on  the  score  of  incapacity,  in  case  of  the 
death  of  his  father.  According  to  the  same  information, 
Ferdinand  had  intimation  of  the  design,  and  found  means 
to  convey  it  to  the  French  Government,  and  the  Chief 
Consul  was  on  the  point  of  interfering  in  his  behalf,  when 
the  recovery  of  the  King  disconcerted  the  projects  of 
both  parties  for  a  time.  This  circumstance  was  related 
to  me  more  than  twenty  years  afterward,  and  I  think 
mv  informant  must  have  mistaken  the  date,  or  confound- 
ed  the  occuri'ences  of  that  day  with  many  subsequent 
events. 

For  some  months  after  the  marriage,  which  was  cele- 
brated at  Barcelona  in  1802,  it  was  apprehended  that  no 
issue  could  be  expected.  The  Queen  of  Naples  upbraided 
her  embassador,  the  Duke  of  St.  Theodore  (from  whom  I 
derive  my  information),  for  having  delivered  over  her 
favorite  daughter  to  a  joyless  and  barren  bed.  That  min- 
ister, however,  adroitly  ascertained  that  ignorance  and 
innocence,  and  no  natural  defect  or  coldness  of  constitu- 
tion, had  retarded  the  completion  of  their  union.  He  found 
means  ere  long  of  enlightening  the  royal  pupils,  and  even 
of  satisfying  his  more  experienced  mistress  that  he  had 


80  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 

■  '— ■■       III  ■■^■■■■■■i I^JIW    — .       ■         I., I  ... -^ 

not  been  unsuccessful  in  his  instructions.  The  details 
related  to  me  would  make  a  figure  in  a  modern  Brantome, 
but  I  do  not  aspire  to  be  such,  and  I  leave  them  to  the 
imaginations  of  Jews  or  Christians,  who  may  read  these 
pages,  with  an  assura.nce  that  their  fancy  can  hardly  make 
them  more  ludicrous  or  indelicate  than  reality.  The  bride 
was  a  pale,  sickly,  ugly  young  woman,  with  a  gentle  ex- 
pression of  countenance  and  great  propriety  of  manner. 
She  soon  lost,  or  never  possessed  the  affections  of  her 
mother-in-law.  Soon  after  her  pregnacy  was  announced, 
a  miscarriage  ensued ;  and  it  was  ascribed  by  common 
report  to  ill-usage  or  yet  more  criminal  practices  of  the 
Queen.  It  was  not  long  ere  the  court  suspected  or  affect- 
ed to  suspect  the  young  Princess  of  gallantr}^  She  was 
more  than  once  confined  to  her  apartment  by  an  order 
from  the  King.  Importance  and  mystery  were  attached 
to  the  arrest  and  dismissal  of  a  young  Sicilian  in  the  Garde 
du  Corps,  of  the  name  of  Carappa.  To  his  story  and  ill- 
ness I  have  before  alluded.  I  think  it  was  at  the  same 
time  hinted  to  the  Duchess  of  St.  Theodore  that  her  pres- 
ence at  Madrid  would  for  some  time  be  dispensed  with. 
Pains  were  certainly  taken  to  imply  that  both  an  amour,  and 
a  political  intrigue  to  give  the  Neapolitans  an  ascendency 
in  the  court  of  the  heir-apparent,  had  been  detected  or 
defeated.  It  was  much  believed  at  this  period  (1804),  that 
the  Council  of  Castile  had  been  consulted  on  the  practica- 
bility and  propriety  of  setting  Ferdinand  aside,  and  that  it 
had  answered,  "  that  there  was  no  known  authority  which 
could  deprive  of  his  right  of  succession  a  Prince  of  Asturias 
duly  swoYUy  married,  and  honored^''*    If  such  a  proceeding 

*  Jurado,  casado,  y  honrado* 


FERDINAND  VII.  j         -        81 


actually  took  place,  which  I  never  could  ascertain,*  the  an- 
swer was  more  in  unison  with  the  ancient  maxims  of  Cas- 
tile and  Arragon,  than  suited  to  the  ears  of  a  Prince  of  the 
House  of  Bourbon.  It  derived  the  right  to  the  Grown 
from  an  oath  administered  in  Cortes,  or  in  deputations 
thereof,  and  confined  the  enjoyment  even  of  that  right  to 
such  as  Were  *^  married"  and  subsequently  ^^  honored^''  in  the 
country ;  thereby  implying  an  authority  vested  somewhere 
to  divest  even  a  sworn  Prince  who  was  either  unmarried, 
or  not  respected  in  the  nation,  of  his  right  of  succession. 
The  Princess  of  Asturias  did  not  long  survive  these  dis- 
cussions and  reports.  Public  hatred  of  the  Queen  and  of 
the  favorite  attributed  her  death  without  scruple,  but  also 
without  proof  or  even  inquiry,  to  poison.  She  had  always 
the  appearance  of  bad  health,  and  died  no  doubt  a  natural 
death.  The  period  of  it  might,  indeed,  be  accelerated  by 
ill-treatment,  vexation,  and  chagrin.  The  dissensions  at 
court  were  not  buried  with  her.  On  the  contrary,  the 
enmity  between  the  Prince  of  Asturias  and  the  favorite 
became  more  virulent,  or  at  least  more  notorious.  Fer- 
dinand communicated  his  grievances  first  to  his  former 
preceptor  Escoiquiz,  and  then  through  him  to  various 
Spaniards  and  some  foreigners.  At  their  suggestion,  or 
from  his  own  reflections,  he  conceived  the  project  of  con- 
certing with  the  French  Embassy  the  means  of  ruining  the 

*  When  I  say  I  could  never  ascertain  it^  I  mean  the  details  and 
form  of  the  proceeding ;  but  of  transactions  and  practices  having  an 
equivalent  object  in  view,  1  have  heard  and  seen  many  proofs,  and 
among  them  a  justificatory  memoir  of  Caballero,  then  Minister  of 
Grace  and  Justice,  which  distinctly  showed  that  he  was  tampered 
with,  though  without  effect,  to  concur  in  a  design  for  setting  aside  the 
Prince  of  Asturias. 

D* 


82  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 


Prince  of  the  Peace,  and  placing  himself  or  his  creatures 
at  the  head  of  the  Spanish  councils,  and  he  added  a  pro- 
posal of  allying  himself  by  marriage  with  the  House  of 
Bonaparte,*  an  expedient  to  which  he  more  than  once  re- 
verted in  the  course  of  his  life.  Napoleon,  whatever  were 
his  ultimate  plans,  was  not  averse  to  maintaining  such  a 
correspondence  with  the  heir-apparent.  He  knew  well 
that  the  predilections  of  the  Prince  of  the  Peace  leaned  to 
England  rather  than  France.  His  ill-will  had  been  mani- 
fested in  public,  and  his  more  secret  manoeuvres  had  not 
escaped  the  vigilance  of  the  French  diplomacy.  Beauhar- 
nais  probably  obeyed  the  spirit,  though  he  may  have  ex- 
ceeded the  letter  of  his  instructions,  in  encouraging  the 
cabals  of  the  Prince  of  Asturias  and  the  Duke  of  Infanta- 
do,  and  in  his  subsequent  communications  with  that  party. 
He  was  certainly  closely  connected  with  them,  and  Murat 
afterward  suspected  him  of  sacrificing  the  interests  of  his 
country,  and  betraying  the  secrets  of  his  court,  from  cor- 
rupt motives,  to  the  adherents  of  Ferdinand  ;  but  it  is  pos- 

*  Stanislaus  Girardin,  a  man  of  veracity  and  intimate  with  Joseph 
while  King  of  Spain,  assured  me  that  Ferdinand  wrote  with  his  own 
hand  to  Napoleon  or  Joseph  to  congratulate  them  on  the  victory  of 
Tudela  ! ! !  and  at  the  same  time  repeated  his  solicitation  for  a  matri- 
monial alliance  with  the  House  of  Bonaparte.  Many  of  the  imperial 
councilors  were  for  printing  the  letter  in  the  Moniteur,  with  the  hope 
of  disgusting  the  enthusiastic  partisans  of  Ferdinand  with  the  baseness 
of  their  chief,  but  the  Emperor  observed  not  only  that  the  knowledge 
of  the  transaction  might  hereafter  be  inconvenient,  but  the  immediate 
object  of  the  publication  would  be  defeated  by  the  very  baseness 
which  they  hoped  to  expose.  It  was  so  bad  that  it  would  be  disbe- 
lieved, and  imputed  as  a  forgery  to  him,  the  Emperor.  He  suppress- 
ed it. 


FERDINAND  VII.  83 


sible  and  probable  that  Napoleon  concealed  from  Murat 
much  of  the  secret  transactions  and  negotiations  in  Spain, 
when  it  suited  his  views  to  alter  the  course  that  had  been 
pursued  by  his  embassador.     It  is  an  undeniable  fact  that 
the  party  of  Ferdinand  was  founded  on  an  intimate  alliance 
with   France,  and   that  all  such  interest  in  the  Spanish 
councils  as  could  be  termed  with  any  plausibility  "En- 
glish" depended  entirely  on  the  Prince  of  the  Peace.     That 
favorite  had  not,  unfortunately,  the  spirit  to  avow,  or  the 
steadiness  to  execute,  the  system  of  policy  he  would  have 
liked  to  pursue,  even  after  he  had  detected  the  existence 
of  the  cabals  and   correspondence  between   the   French 
agents  and  the  Prince  of  Asturias.     Ferdinand  was,  how- 
ever, arrested.     A  guard  was  placed  at  his  door  in  the 
Escurial,  and  his  papers,  portfolios,  and  furniture  seized 
and  conveyed  to  the  King's  apartment.     His  first  step  was 
to  write  a  submissive  letter  to  his  mother.     She  answered 
that  as  he  had  suspected  her  as  well  as  his  father's  minis- 
ters of  designs  against  his  interests  and  even  his  person, 
and  as  such  suspicion  was  the  cause  or  pretext  of  any  im- 
proper proceedings  in  which  he  might  be  involved,  deli- 
cacy and  honor  precluded  her  from  interfering  while  the 
matter  was  under  examination.     She  had  determined  to 
ask  no  question,  and  to  deliver  no  opinion  till  the   King 
was  in  full  possession  of  all  the  evidence  of  which  he  was 
in  search,  and  had  formed  an  unbiased  judgment  on  its 
nature  and  tendency.     That  then,  if  his  anger  continued, 
she  might  intercede  to  appease  it,  or  at  least  to  rescue  her 
child  from  its  consequences,  but  that  she  would  not  expose 
herself  to  misinterpretations  by  advice  to  either  party,  or 
by  any  comment  on  the  causes  or  extent  of  his  estrange- 


84  ■    -FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 

ment  from  her  and  his  fathers  government.  After  two  or 
three  days'  confinement,  during  which  no  intercourse  was 
allowed,  Ferdinand  was  brought  before  his  father  and 
mother.  The  seals  which,  if  1  mistake  not,  he  had  placed 
on  his  portfolios  and  boxes  when  they  were  taken  from 
him,  were  broken  in  his  presence.  The  papers  found 
therein  were  read  before  him  to  the  King.  He  once  or 
twice  in  the  course  of  the  perusal  of  them  entreated  the 
Queen  by  looks  or  words  to  interpose  ;  but  she  told  him 
that  she  had  wished  to  withdraw,  and  now  repeated  her 
application  to  Charles  IV.,  who  insisted  on  her  remaining, 
and  bade  his  son,  with  much  passion,  listen  without  inter- 
ruption to  what  was  read,  and  to  what  would  afterward  be 
alleged  against  him,  and  give  him  such  answers  and  ex- 
planations as  consistently  with  truth  he  was  enabled  to  do. 
The  whole  contents  of  the  papers  have  never,  I  believe, 
been  divulged.  Many  were  insignificant ;  some  mere 
matters  of  form ;  others  somewhat  suspicious  and  un- 
intelligible, but  among  them  was  the  draft  of  a  letter  to 
Napoleon,  soliciting  a  Princess  of  his  Imperial  House  in 
marriage ;  and  another  of  a  very  equivocal  nature  which 
both  the  Queen  and  the  Duke  of  Infantado  have  described 
to  me  as  written  I  think,  and  signed  I  am  sure,  in  Ferdi- 
nand's own  handwriting,  Yo  El  Rey.  It  appointed  some 
person  (whose  name  did  not  appear  in  that  draft  or  copy) 
Captain-General  of  Castile,  and  commanded  him  to  arrest 
and  imprison  without  delay  the  Prince  of  the  Peace.  The 
paper  was  long,  probably  in  due  form,  and  certainly  con- 
taining the  enumeration  of  titles  and  offices  of  the  persons 
named  therein,  according  to  the  usage  of  Spanish  official 
documents.      Charles   IV.   asked  Ferdinand,  with   some 


FERDINAND  VII.  85 


vehemence,  how  he  dared  to  draw  such  a  paper,  and  an-  ' 
nex  such  a  signature  ?  He  said  his  head  might  answer  it. 
It  amounted  to  treason  in  law,  and  to  parricide  in  inten-  ^ 
tion.  He  threatened  him,  with  much  vociferation,  with  all 
the  consequences,  unless  he  instantly  discovered  at  whose 
instigation  he  had  taken  so  dangerous  a  step.  Ferdinand, 
with  more  surprise  than  dismay,  assured  his  father  that  he 
was  laboring  under  a  mistake,  and  converting  a  very  harm- 
less, though  perhaps  indecorous  amusement,  into  a  matter 
of  state,  swelling  a  childish  impropriety  into  an  act  of  pre- 
meditated guilt.  The  paper,  he  said,  was  a  jeu  d* esprit 
written  for  his  diversion  one  evening  in  the  Christmas^ 
holidays,  with  his  late  wife,  and  intended  for  a  parody  of 
official  instruments,  or  at  worst,  a  specimen  of  the  power 
they  should  possess  when  it  pleased  Providence  to  de- 
prive them  of  their  father,  the  King  of  Spain.  The  Queen, 
who  at  Rome,  in  1814,  described  this  curious  scene  to  me 
in  the  presence  of  her  husband,  assured  me  that  Ferdinand 
gave  this  account  so  readily,  and  so  naturally,  that  with- 
out acquitting  him  in  her  own  mind  of  many  other  of- 
fenses, she  was  yet  satisfied,  as  he  told  the  story,  that 
the  paper  formed  no  part  of  the  conspiracy  of  which  they 
were  seeking  the  clew,  but  was,  in  truth,  some  childish- 
ness {quelque  enfantillage)  of  her  son  and  the  late  Princess 
of  Asturias.  But  the  King,  more  attentive  than  she  to 
matters  of  rank,  precedence,  and  promotion,  quickly  per- 
ceived that  Godoy  was  designated  by  a  title  *  conferred 


*  I  think  it  was  High  Admiral  or  some  such  title.  But  I,  like  the 
Queen  of  Spain,  am  somewhat  inobservant  of  matters  of  that  sort,  and 
am  afraid  of  discrediting  the  substance  of  my  narrative  by  trusting  to 
my  inaccurate  memory  as  to  form  and  detail. 


86  FOREIGN  EEMINTSCENCES. 

upon  him  since  the  death  of  that  Princess.  Half  choking 
with  rage  and  clenching  his  fist,  Charles  exclaimed :  "  Tu 
mientes,  Fernando,  tu  mientes ;  y  tu  me  lo  pagaras,  si,  me 
lo  pagaras."  His  fury  alarmed  the  Queen,  and  might 
well  terrify  the  Prince.  But  then  ensued  a  scene  which 
the  Queen  most  truly  characterized  as  the  climax  of  base- 
ness, cowardice,  and  perfidy.  Ferdinand  fell  on  his  knees, 
burst  into  tears,  acknowledged  the  charge,  but,  with  strong 
promises  of  amendment,  exculpated  himself  b}^  casting  the 
blame  on  all  those  with  whom  he  had  at  any  time  con- 
versed on  such  subjects.  He  exaggerated  their  hatred  of 
the  Prince  of  the  Peace,  described  their  designs  as  going 
far  beyond  his  own,  and  spontaneously  denounced  the 
names  of  every  one  of  them,  offering  every  document  in 
his  power,  and  even  his  oral  testimony,  to  convict  them  of 
the  guilt  in  which,  for  his  sake,  they  had  involved  them- 
selves. The  Queen  assured  me  that  she  shuddered  at  the 
unfeeling  baseness  of  his  disclosures ;  she  added,  that  the 
King  was  too  much  absorbed  in  his  rage  at  the  conspir- 
acy, and  too  much  bent  on  the  punishment  of  the  offenders, 
to  view  in  its  true  light  the  treachery  of  his  son,  more  dis- 
gusting if  possible  than  any  plot  of  which  he  could  be  sus- 
pected. Such  was  the  account  I  received  in  1814  from  the 
Queen  herself  at  Rome  in  the  palace  Barbarini.  The 
King,  who  was  present  and  attentive  to  her  narrative, 
confirmed  the  greater  part  by  his  gestures,  and  acquiesced 
in  the  rest  by  his  silence.  It  is  corroborated  by  the  pro- 
ceedings which  ensued.  At  the  same  time  I  should  observe 
that  the  object  of  her  Majesty's  conversation  with  me  was 
to  justify  her  indignation  against  her  son.  Her  narrative 
consequently  ended  here.    The  subsequent  events  I  derive 


FERDINAND  VII.       -  87 


from  less  direct,  but  yet  credible  sources,  and  in  many- 
particulars  from  the  Duke  of  Infantado.  An  order  was 
dispatched  to  Madrid  to  convey  that  Duke,  on  the  very 
night  of  this  confession,  to  the  Escurial ;  and  there  a  com- 
mission WU.S  appointed  to  try  him  for  high  treason.  He 
probably  v^rould  have  been  executed  immediately  had  he 
been  brought  thither  according  to  orders ;  but  the  mule- 
teers purposely  missed  the  turn  to  the  Escurial,  and  con- 
veyed him  as  far  as  St.  Ildefonso,  before  they  acknowl- 
edged their  pretended  mistake.  They  had,  it  is  supposed, 
been  bribed  by  agents  of  the  French  Embassy  to  do  so. 
In  the  mean  while,  Beauharnais  bestirred  himself  to  soften 
the  anger  of  the  King,  to  awaken  the  fears  of  the  favorite, 
and,  if  he  could  not  procure  the  liberation  of  Infantado  and 
his  associates,  to  save  them  from  the  fatal  consequences 
of  a  criminal  proceeding  instituted  in  the  moment  of  re- 
sentment. Infantado,  after  some  weeks'  close  confinement, 
was  banished  to  Ecija.  Ferdinand  had  on  his  first  arrest 
contrived  to  apprise  him ;  and  he  had  prudently  concealed 
the  original  paper  signed  Yo  El  Rey,  and  conferring  on 
him  the  appointment  of  Captain-General  of  Castile,  in  a  tin 
box  which  was  buried  in  his  mother's  garden  at  Chamartin, 
and  remained  there  when  that  villa  became,  in  1809,  the 
head-quarters  of  Napoleon.*  A  proclamation  was  issued, 
stating  the  existence  of  a  conspiracy,  and  the  fiscal  was 
employed  to  draw  up  an  accusation  against  the  conspira- 
tors ;  but  the  non-appearance  of  the  original  paper,  which 
was  searched  for  in  vain,  and  the  scandal,  rather  than  the 

*  Napoleon  placed  his  chair  on  the  very  spot  on  the  morning  before 
he  entered  Madrid,  and  spread  the  maps  and  plans  before  him  in  the 
garden. 


88  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 

■  ■■«■■■■  I  II      II      ■       I.  .11  II--  ,. ■■  _ .... ,,,..  —  .,■_  .—■.^,.^,i.—  ,     ^,     I         .       .^  ■  .    ,    m  mm.,  ntrnmamtt 

reluctance  of  Ferdinand,  the  heir  apparent,  exhibiting  him- 
self in  the  characters  of  accomplice,  informer,  and  witness, 
probably  deterred  the  court  from  any  further  proceeding 
against  the  prisoners ;  for  the  circumstance  on  which  in 
conversation  the  Duke  of  Infantado  rested  his  main  defense 
of  the  paper,  would  not,  I  presume,  have  been  considered 
as  conclusive  evidence  of  his  innocence.  It  was  sealed 
with  black  wax,  said  the  Duke,  to  prevent  any  use  being 
made  thereof  till  Charles  IV.  was  actually  dead.  Thus 
the  truth  (added  he)  would  have  been  inferred  by  any 
reasonable  man,  and  it  would  have  appeared,  as  it  was, 
a  mere  measure  of  precaution  to  take  effect,  in  case  any 
thing  should  happen  to  his  father,  for  the  purpose  of  secur- 
ing the  successor  to  the  Crown  from  intimidation  from 
those  in  possession  of  the  palace.  It  was  a  device  by 
which  any  act  forced  upon  him,  and  merely  colored  with 
his  name,  would  have  been  annulled  in  the  eyes  of  the 
public. 

From  this  period,  notwithstanding  outward  appearances 
of  reconciliation  between  all  the  members  of  the  Royal 
Family,  and  notwithstanding  the  subsistence  of  treaties, 
and  a  constant  intercourse  between  France  and  Spain,  the 
palace  was  a  scene  of  cabal,  enmity,  and  conspiracy,  and 
the  two  allied  governments  in  a  state  of  ill-disguised  dis- 
trust and  hostility.  Ferdinand  looked  to  Napoleon  and 
to  French  agents  and  armies  exclusively  for  protection 
against  the  favorite,  while  the  favorite  wavered  between 
the  policy  of  defying,  eluding,  or  propitiating  the  power  of 
France.  Another  party  was  in  the  mean  while  formed 
among  Spaniards  of  enlightened  views,  of  which  O'Farril 
and  Asanza  were  in  some  sense  the  leaders.     They  in- 


FERDINAND  VII.  89 


tended  to  avail  themselves  of  the  approaching  crisis  to 
overturn,  together  with  the  power  of  Godoy,  the  tyranny 
both  in  Church  and  State  ;  and  they  hoped  through  the 
ascendency  of  the  Prince  of  the  Asturias,  and  the  revival 
or  establishment  of  institutions  really  national,  to  provide 
against  all  future  abuses,  and  to  raise  Spain  in  the  scale 
of  European  States.  Some  of  these  persons  had,  indeed, 
strong  predilections  for  France,  and  persuaded  themselves 
'that  Napoleon  would  favor  their  designs,  and  even  assist 
in  laying  the  foundations  of  Spanish  prosperity  in  the  prin- 
ciples of  a  free  government,  as  long^as  they  continued  to 
direct  the  resources  resulting  therefrom  to  the  furtherance 
of  his  own  projects  against  England.  Napoleon,  however, 
clearly  perceived  (whatever  were  his  ulterior  objects),  that 
to  secure  his  own  interests  upon  the  triumph  of  any  party, 
or  on  the  downfall  of  all,  the  presence  of  a  French  force 
was  indispensable.  He  adroitly  availed  himself  of  the 
secret  invitations  of  Ferdinand,  on  one  side,  and  the  hollow 
professions  and  irresolution  of  the  Prince  of  the  Peace,  on 
the  other,  to  advance  his  ti'oops  toward  the  capital,  and  to 
introduce  French  garrisons  in  the  chief  fortresses  of  the 
kingdom.  Orders  for  their  reception  were  procured  by 
contrivance  or  intimidation  from  the  Prince  of  the  Peace 
himself,  and  it  is  said  that  in  some  instances  they  were 
forged,  in  others  accompanied  with  private  letters  from 
Ferdinand  or  some  military  man  of  his  party.  It  was  only 
where  those  in  command  were  the  reputed  enemies  of  the 
Prince  of  the  Peace,  that  such  orders  were  obeyed  with 
any  alacrity,  and  the  French  received  as  deliverers  and 
friends.  Though  no  resistance  was  offered  any  where, 
great  reluctance,  distrust,  and  ill-humor  were  shown  by 


90  FOREIGxN  REMINISCENCES. 

those  commanders  who  enjoyed  the  confidence  of  the 
favorite.  Murat,  Duke  of  Berg,  had  indeed  secret  instruc- 
tions to  take  by  force  any  place  where  admittance  was 
positively  refused^  and  to  march  as  speedily  as  he  could, 
without  spreading  great  alarm,  to  Madrid.  Not  a  syllable 
had  been  communicated  to  him  of  the  object  of  his  expedi- 
tion. When  he  solicited  some  explanations  for  his  own 
guidance  upon  it,  the  Emperor  wrote  a  few  lines  in  his 
own  hand  to  this  purpose  :  "  Have  I  not  bid  you  be  at 
such  and  such  a  place  by  such  a  day  ?  and  reach  Madrid 
before  such  a  time  ?  and  what  more  can  a  general  of  my 
armies  require  ?" 

Neither  the  Emperor  nor  his  agents  could  have  foreseen 
the  events  of  Aranjuez.  They  might  have  supposed  that 
Charles  IV.  and  his  court  would,  like  the  Prince  Regent 
of  Portugal,  fly  to  South  America,  or  that  Ferdinand,  de- 
termined to  prevent  such  a  step,  would  call  in  French 
assistance,  and  fly  for  protection  to  the  head-quarters  of  his 
allies ;  but  it  could  never  be  in  their  contemplation,  and 
still  less  in  their  wishes,  that  the  downfall  of  the  Prince  of 
the  Peace,  the  abdication  of  Charles  IV.,  and  the  accession 
of  Ferdinand  should  be  effected  exclusively  by  Spaniards. 
Whether,  as  some  suppose,  the  subsequent  conduct  of 
Napoleon  sprang  from  apprehensions,  then  first  presented 
to  his  mind,  of  a  strong  national  and  popular  government 
in  Spain,  or  whether,  as  more  generally  conjectured,  it  was 
in  pursuance  of  a  Machiavelian  scheme  long  conceived  and 
matured,  may  remain  problematical  to  the  biographer  and 
historian.  It  is  certain  that  the  unexpected  embarrass- 
ment of  Beauharnais  and  the  refusal  of  the  Duke  of  Berg 
to  recognize  the  new  King,  disconcerted  and  disappointed 


THE  PRINCE  OF  THE  PEACE.  91 

Ferdinand  and  his  advisers,  while  the  interest  taken  by 
the  Duke  of  Berg  in  the  fate  of  the  Prince  of  the  Peace, 
and  the  respect  shown  by  him  to  Charles  IV.,  agreeably 
surprised  the  old  court.  Murat  assured  me,  in  1814,  that 
he  had  no  instructions,  and  that  he  suspected  Beauharnais 
of  having  exceeded  his,  in  the  countenance  which  he  gave 
to  the  party  of  Ferdinand  both  before  and  after  the  events 
at  Aranjuez.  Nor  did  any  subsequent  discoveries  change 
this  impression  of  Murat.  On  the  contrary,  his  adherents 
long  after  that  period  continued,  perhaps  from  hostility  to 
the  name  and  family  of  Beauharnais,  to  profess  suspicions 
of  a  yet  graver  nature  against  the  embassador,  and  to 
imply  that  he  was  actually  betraying  the  interests  of  the 
French  government  to  Ferdinand  and  his  party.  Charles 
IV.,  on  the  evening  of  the  day  on  which  he  abdicated, 
spoke  cheerfully  of  the  step  he  had  taken.  He  told  the 
diplomatic  corps*  "that  he  was  tired  of  business,  grown 
old,  and  that  it  was  fair  his  son  should  take  the  burden  of 
affairs  upon  him.'*  But  the  next  morning  his  tone  was 
entirely  altered,!  and  forty-eight  hours  had  not  elapsed 
before  he  conveyed  his  thanks  to  Murat  J  for  withholding 
his  recognition  of  Ferdinand,  and  requested  him  to  assure 
Napoleon  that  nothing  but  the  dread  of  confusion  and 
bloodshed  would  have  induced  him  to  acquiesce  in  the 
usurpation  of  his  son.  The  Prince  of  the  Peace  had  been 
dragged  by  the  populace  of  Aranjuez  from  a  hiding  hole  to 
which  he  had  somewhat  ignominiously  retreated.     He  was 

*  From  Mr.  de  Bourke,  the  Danish  minister,  present, 
f  De  Bourke. 

t  From  Count  Mosbourg,  the  confidential  friend  of  Murat,  and  a 
clear-headed  and  accurate  man. 


92  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 

insulted,  and  I  believe  wounded  by  one  of  the  rabble,  but 
saved  from  the  more  fatal  effects  of  their  fury  by  the  inter- 
vention of  Ferdinand,  who  exhibited  upon  that  occasion 
the  only  trait  of  talent,  spirit,  and  generosity  which  re- 
lieves the  hideous  uniformity  of  his  base,  cowardly,  and 
perfidious  career.  "  If  there  be  any  man  here,"  said  he, 
"who  has  more  reason  to  be  offended  with  Manuel  Godoy 
than  myself,  let  him  take  justice  into  his  own  hands ;  but 
if  not,  leave  me  to  act  as  my  honor  and  promise  require, 
and  abstain  from  all  violence  whatever."  With  such 
promptitude  did  he  execute  the  promise  he  had  given 
his  mother,  who,  on  hearing  that  her  favorite  was  seized 
by  the  populace,  conjured  her  son  to  fly  to  his  rescue, 
while  his  father  assured  him  that  he  would  acquiesce  in 
any  thing  to  prevent  bloodshed,  and,  above  all,  the  murder 
of  the  Prince  of  the  Peace.  That  favorite  was  conveyed 
as  a  prisoner  to  Madrid,  and  consigned  either  there  or 
at  the  Escurial  (I  think  at  the  request  of  Ferdinand  him- 
self) to  the  custody  of  a  French  guard.  He  was  after- 
ward removed  to  Bayonne.  Murat,  to  protect  him  from 
insult,  conveyed  him  part  of  the  way  in  his  own  carriage, 
and  was  shocked,  as  he  told  me,  at  the  fear  he  betrayed, 
hiding  his  head,  and  creeping  to  the  bottom  of  the  car- 
riage whenever  they  met  on  the  road  any  body  of  Spanish 
soldiers  or  peasantry.  I  can  believe  the  story.  In  truth, 
the  irresolution,  vanity,  and,  above  all,  the  ignorance  of 
Don  Manuel  Godoy  would  have  incapacitated  him  for 
Prime  Minister  in  most  countries,  and  he  must  have 
possessed  some  good  and  counteracting  qualities,  both 
of  head  and  heart,  to  have  retained  power  so  long 
even  in  Spain.     His  ignorance  was  such  that  the  Charge 


.  \ 

THE  PRINCE  OF  THE  PEACE.  93 

d' Affaires*  of  the  Hanseatic  Towns,  told  me  that  the  States 
he  represented  were  often  designated  in  the  superscription 
or  the  body  of  the  notes,  which  he  received  from  the 
Duke  of  Alcudia's  f  office,  Islas  Asiaticas,  instead  of  Vil- 
las Hanseaticas,  and  the  same  person  assured  me  that 
Godoy  was  some  time  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  before 
he  discovered  Prussia  and  Russia  to  be  two  distinct  coun- 
tries ;  Mr.  Sandoz,  the  Minister  from  Berlin,  being  at 
that  time  and  during  the  absence  of  a  Russian  envoy, 
the  agent  for  the  court  of  St.  Petersburgh  at  Madrid. 
As  I  neither  extenuate  the  vices  nor  soften  the  ridicules  of 
this  powerful  favorite,  but  recount  them  as  they  have 
been  described  to  me,  it  is  at  least  fair  to  record  the 
more  favorable  impressions  which  my  slight  personal  in- 
tercourse and  unimportant  transactions  with  him  left  of 
his  character  on  my  mind.  His  manner,  though  some- 
what indolent,  or  what  the  French  term  nonchalant,  was 
graceful  and  attractive.  Though  he  had  neither  educa- 
tion nor  reading,  his  language  was  at  once  elegant  and 
peculiar ;  and,  notwithstanding  his  humble  origin,  his  whole 
deportment  announced,  more  than  that  of  any  untraveled 
Spaniard  I  ever  met  with,  that  mixture  of  dignity,  polite- 
ness, propriety,  and  ease,  which  the  habits  of  good  com- 
pany are  supposed  exclusively  to  confer.  He  seemed 
born  for  a  high  station.  Without  any  effort  he  would 
have  passed,  wherever  he  was,  for  the  first  man  in  the 

*  Andreoli,  a  Venetian  by  birth,  who  was  also  secretary  to  the 
Austrian  Embassy  at  Madrid,  and  himself,  though  an  entertaining 
mixture  of  shrewdness  and  simplicity,  very  ignorant  both  of  history 
and  geography. 
.    f  The  Prince  of  the  Peace's  title,  when  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs. 


FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 


society.  I  never  conversed  with  him  sufficiently  to  form 
any  judgment  of  his  understanding.  Our  interviews  were 
mere  interchanges  of  civility.  But  a  transaction  of  no  im- 
portance to  the  public,  but  of  great  importance  to  the 
parties  concerned,  took  place  between  us,  and  he  not  only 
behaved  with  great  courtesy  to  me,  but  showed  both  hu- 
manity and  magnanimity.  A  young  English  gentleman 
of  the  name  of  Powell  had,  before  the  war  between  En- 
gland and  Spain,  engaged  either  with  General  Miranda, 
or  some  other  South  American  adventurer,  in  an  expe- 
dition to  liberate  the  Spanish  colonies.  He  was  taken. 
By  law  his  life  was  forfeited,  but  he  was  condemned,  by  a 
sentence  nearly  equivalent,  to  perpetual  imprisonment  in 
the  unwholesome  fortress  of  Omoa.  His  father.  Chief 
Justice  of  Canada,  on  hearing  the  sad  tidings  hastened  to 
England.  Unfortunately,  hostilities  had  commenced,  un- 
der circumstances  calculated  to  exasperate  the  govern- 
ment and  people  of  Spain.  The  Chief  Justice  was,  how- 
ever, determined  to  try  the  efficacy  of  a  personal  applica- 
tion to  alleviate  the  sufferings  of  his  son,  by  a  change  of 
prison,  since  he  despaired  of  obtaining  his  release.  Hav- 
ing procured  passports,  he  proceeded  to  Spain,  furnished 
with  a  letter  of  introduction  to  the  Prince  of  the  Peace 
from  me,  to  whom  he  applied  as  recently  arrived  from 
thence,  and  not  involved  in  the  angry  feelings  or  discus- 
sions which  had  led  to  the  rupture  between  the  two  coun- 
tries. The  Prince  received  him  at  Aranjuez,  and  immedi- 
ately on  reading  the  letter,  and  hearing  the  story,  bade  the 
anxious  father  remain  till  he  had  seen  the  King,  and  left 
the  room  for  that  purpose  without  ceremony  or  delay. 
He  soon  returned  with  an  order,  not  for  the  change  of 


THE  PRINCE  OF  THE  PEACE.  95 

prison,  but  for  the  immediate  liberation  of  the  young  man. 
Nor  was  he  satisfied  with  this  act  of  humanity,  but  added, 
with  a  smile  of  benevolence,  that  a  parent  who  had  come 
so  far  to  render  a  service  to  his  child  would  like  probably 
to  be  the  bearer  of  good  intelligence  himself,  and  accord- 
ingly he  furnished  him  with  a  passport  and  permission  to 
sail  in  a  Spanish  frigate  then  preparing  to  leave  Cadiz  for 
the  West  Indies.  When  I  saw  the  Prince  of  the  Peace 
many  years  afterward  at  Verona,  he  lamented  to  me  that 
his  situation  would  be  very  precarious  if  Charles  TV.  were 
to  die,  and  he  was  desirous  of  ascertaining  if  he  could  find 
an  asylum  in  England.  The  moment  I  heard  of  the  event 
I  apprehended,  in  1819,  I  related  all  the  above  particulars 
to  Lord  Liverpool,  and  solicited  a  passport  for  the  Prince 
of  the  Peace.  Lord  Liverpool  said,  that  an  English  pass- 
port to  a  foreigner  implied  an  invitation,  and  the  gov- 
ernment were  not  prepared  to  invite  the  Prince  of  the 
Peace  to  England ;  but  he  authorized  and  urged  me  to 
assure  him  that  he  would  be  unmolested  if  he  arrived 
there,  and  enjoy  every  protection  for  his  person  and  prop- 
erty that  a  foreigner  was  entitled  to.  The  answer  of 
the  Prince  of  the  Peace  to  my  communication  of  this 
assurance  was  concise,  and  to  the  following  purpose  :  "  He 
had,  for  many  years,  disposed  of  the  resources  of  one  of 
the  richest  kingdoms  in  Europe,  he  had  made  the  fortune  of 
thousands  and  thousands,  but  I  was  the  only  mortal  who, 
since  his  fall,  had  expressed  any  sense  or  shown  any 
recollection  of  any  service,  great  or  small,  received  from 
him.  I  might  therefore  judge  of  the  pleasure  my  letter  had 
given  him."     He  did  not  however  come  to  England.^ 

*  See  Appendix,  No.  III. 


56 


FOREIGN  REMINISCEN'OES. 


Th( 


Bayoi 


sly,  but 


events  at  JBayonne  are  very  copious 
what  variously  related  by  many  Spaniards  and  French- 
men, eye-witnesses  or  actors  in  those  scenes.     I  had  no 
particular  opportunity  of  hearing  details  not   otherwise 
known.      Indeed,  I  have  dwelt  on  the   previous   events 
in  Spain  (on  which  I  had  collected  information  from  the 
Duke  of  Infantado  in  England,  from  the  King  and  Queen 
at  Rome,  and  King  Joachim  at  Naples,  as  well  as  from 
one   or   two   intelligent   but   indifferent   spectators)    with 
some  prolixity,  because  the  state  of  factions  at  that  time 
has   either  been  grossly  misunderstood,  or  artfully   mis- 
represented by  sundry  English  writers  and  speakers  of 
apparent  authority ;  and  because  a  more  accurate  knowl- 
edge of  them  is  necessary  to  enable  the  future  historian 
of  the   Spanish  war  and  revolutions  to  trace  the  causes 
and  ascertain  the  bearings  of  many  transactions  in  the 
progress  of  those  memorable  struggles.     A  singular  cir- 
cumstance affecting  the  character  of  Napoleon,  in  one  of 
the  most  questionable  passages  of  his  career,  is  worthy 
of  observation.     He  knew  that  the  government  of  Charles 
IV.  had  defied  him  in  an  open  proclamation,  he  ascer- 
tained, on  the  occupation  of  Berlin  in  1806,  that  it  was 
promoting  a  confederacy  against  France,  and  he  was  well 
aware  that  as  early  as  1803  it  had  secretly  fomented  a 
conspiracy  against  his  person,  by  furnishing  the  accom- 
plices of  Georges  with  passports  to  cross  the  Pyrenees. 
Yet,  in  no  public  paper,  nor  so  far  as  I  know  in  any  pri- 
vate conversation,  did  he  ever  allege  such  facts  as  motives 
or  excuses  for  his  invasion  of  Spain,  and  dethronement 
of  the  Bourbon  dynasty  there.     Charles  IV.  in  convers- 
ation with  me  mentioned  Bonaparte  and  his  own  personal 


CHARLES  IV.  97 


dislike  to  him  more  than  once.  It  was  whimsical*  to  hear 
a  man  who  had  lost  a  crown,  descant  on  the  manners, 
talents,  and  attainments  of  the  greatest  man  of  the  age, 
who  had  obtained  one,  in  terms  of  scorn  and  disparage- 
ment. He  could,  he  said  neither  talk  nor  write  any  lan- 
guage correctly,  and  he  chuckled  at  his  own  superiority, 
by  observing,  that  at  Bayonne  and  elsewhere  he,  Charles, 
had  kept  a  diary,  an  effort  of  industry  and  genius,  of  which 
he  was  confident  Napoleon  was  incapable.  If  the  notes 
of  the  Royal  Exile  could  be  recovered,  I  suspect  they 
would  not  raise  the  literary  reputation  of  the  Spanish 
branch  of  the  House  of  Bourbon  ;  but  as  he  had  been  ex- 
posed to  many  vicissitudes,  and  must  have  known  the  secret 
of  many  mysterious  occurrences,  and,  as  moreover,  though 
unfeeling,  brutal,  silly,  and  credulous,  he  was  nevertheless 
a  man  of  veracity,  it  is  a  matter  of  regret  that  the  MS.  on 
which  he  plumed  himself  so  greatly,  should  have  fallen 
into  the  hands  of  the  Spanish  or  Roman  government,  who 
have  in  all  probability  destroyed  it.  Perhaps  the  memoirs 
of  the  Chevalier  Azara,  many  years  embassador  at  Rome 
and  Paris,  and  a  man  of  wit,  judgment,  and  sarcasm,  shared 
the  same  fate.  His  papers  were  still  at  Paris  when  he 
died,  six  months  after  retiring  from  office,  at  Burgos.  The 
French  government  endeavored  to  detain  them,  but  some, 
and  among  them  a  History  of  Italy  during  his  time,  were 
saved  by  his  brother  and  taken  to  Spain.     If  extant,  they 

*  Perhaps  not  much  more  so  than  to  hear  great  princes  and  kings 
who  have  never  seen,  or,  at  least,  gained  a  battle,  speak  in  a  tone  of  au- 
thority of  the  mistakes  made  and  the  incapacity  betrayed  by  the  captain 
of  our  age,  who  has  gained  the  greatest.  Some  of  my  contemporaries 
pnd  countrymen  have  had,  and,  perhaps,  enjoyed  such  a  diversion, 

E 


98  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 

must  be  valuable.  He  was  in  the  habit  of  recounting  with 
great  humor  and  great  accuracy  a  variety  of  anecdotes, 
and  he  had  had  access  to  many  of  the  secrets  of  the  Papal 
Government.  No  man  was  less  disposed  by  temper  or 
opinion  to  democracy  or  to  France,  but  tlie  anti-revolution- 
ary war  and  the  conduct  of  the  old  governments  in  Europe, 
and  of  England  in  particular,  compelled  him  to  become  sub- 
servient to  both.  "Your  Mr.  Pitt,"  said  he  to  me  in  1802, 
"  resolved,  I  know  not  why,  that  every  foreigner  should 
be  either  a  French  Jacobin,  or  a  monk  of  the  tenth  century. 
I  made  my  choice  w^ith  some  difficulty  and  with  great  con- 
cern ;  and  so,  you  see  me,  a  knight  of  Malta,  a  servant  of 
his  Most  Catholic  Majesty,  embassador  and  confidential 
adviser  of  his  Holiness  the  Pope,  covered  with  Bourbon 
orders  and  titles — you  see  me,  I  say,  here  at  the  age  of 
sixty  and  upward,  the  Chevalier  Azara  of  Arragon,  a 
French  Jacobin  !  courting  an  adventurer  at  the  head  of 
the  Republic,  and  inviting  you  to  dine  at  the  nuptials  of  his 
aid-de-camp  (Duroc),  and  all  this  is  because  the  minister 
of  a  Protestant  state  and  parliamentary  king  determined 
that  any  Catholic  or  Spaniard,  who  would  not  submit  to  be 
a  fanatic,  a  bigot,  a  mere  friar,  or  monk,  should  be  con- 
sidered an  enemy  of  social  order,  regular  government, 
religion,  and  wliai  notT  There  was  surely  much  humor 
in  the  picture  he  drew,  and  there  was  truth  and  philosophy 
in  the  lesson  it  conveyed. 

After  the  battle  of  Baylen,.and  the  formation  of  the  Cen- 
tral Junta  in  Spain,  I  again  visited  that  country,  with  my 
family.  The  Junta  had  been  hastily  chosen,  and  was 
composed  of  materials  not  happily  assorted  to  one  another. 
The  members  were  driven  from  Aranjuez   before  they 


CENTRAL  JUiNTA.  99 


were  well  installed  in  their  seats,  before  they  had  clear- 
ly defined  their  authority,  and  before  they  had  traced 
the  system  of  government  they  intended  to  establish.  I 
saw  them  at  Seville ;  they  were  too  much  occupied  with 
the  ceremonies,  forms,  and  patronage  of  their  new  govern- 
ment. They  had,  indeed,  among  them  some  ex-ministers 
and  magistrates  of  great  integrity,  enlightened  views,  and 
distinguished  talents.  Among  these,  Don  Gaspar  Melchor 
de  Jovellanos  was  the  most  eminent ;  but  even  they,  from 
the  caution  of  their  time  of  life,  and  from  the  habits  of 
magistracy,  were  somewhat  too  scrupulously  observant  of 
technical  rules  inapplicable  to  the  exigency  of  circum- 
stances, and  too  readily  alarmed  at  those  vigorous  meas- 
ures of  innovation  which  a  state  of  revolution  and  civil 
war  demands.  Their  choice  of  ministers  did  them  credit. 
The  venerable  Saavedra  was  among  them,  and  Hermida, 
a  still  older  man,  who  was  Minister  of  Grace  and  Justice, 
though  both  prejudiced  and  capricious,  was  a  man  of 
knowledge,  courage,  and  capacity.  Garay,  who,  though 
member  of  the  Junta,  presided  over  their  foreign  affairs, 
combined  zeal  and  discernment  with  more  knowledge  of 
the  world  and  amenity  of  manner  than  is  usual  in  Spanish 
politicians.  His  office  in  the  Alcazar  was  the  resort  of  a 
small  society  or  club,  called  la  Junta  Chica,*  which  direct- 

*  The  Duke  of  Altamira,  Marquis  of  Astorga,  was  the  least  man  I 
ever  saw  in  society,  and  smaller  than  many  dwarfs  exhibited  for 
money.  He  was  President  of  the  Junta,  and  drove  about  with  guards 
like  a  royal  personage.  They  called  him  the  Rey  Chico,  a  name 
formerly  given  to  a  king  of  Grenada,  and  it  was  in  allusion  to  that 
nickname  that  the  small  club  or  knot  of  men  I  have  mentioned,  gave 
themselves  that  of /ww^a  C7iica. 


100  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 


ed  the  insurrectionary  press,  and  was  active,  both  in  public 
and  in  private,  in  promoting  a  convocation  of  Cortes,  the 
promulgation  of  liberal  and  tolerant  laws,  and  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  popular  government.  It  was  composed  of 
young  men  of  more  ardor  and  imagination  than  experience 
or  prudence,  who  had  imbibed  their  notions  of  freedom 
from  the  encyclopedists  of  France,  rather  than  from  the 
history  of  their  ancient  institutions,  or  from  the  immediate 
wants  of  their  own  country.  They  were,  perhaps,  more 
competent  to  exhibit  their  own  contempt  of  superstition 
and  disdain  of  abuses,  than  to  reconcile  either  the  Church 
or  the  nobility  to  a  rational  correction  of  them,  and  to 
render  those  powerful  bodies  instrumental,  first  in  the  re- 
covery of  independence,  and  afterward  in  the  establish- 
ment of  the  freedom  of  their  country.  The  crude  projects 
of  this  rising  party,  on  one  hand,  and  equally  impolitic,  and, 
perhaps,  less  honest  irresolution  of  the  Junta  in  convoking 
the  Cortes,  on  the  other,  contributed  to  widen  the  breach 
between  those  who  had  concurred  in  resisting  the  French 
from  different  and  even  opposite  motives.  Hence,  when 
the  Cortes  did  meet,  some  deputies  were  more  intent  on 
destroying  the  power  of  the  Church,  and  suppressing  the 
privileges  of  the  nobility,  than  on  resisting  the  common 
enemy ;  and  others  were  more  jealous  of  such  designs,  as 
aiming  at  a  revolution  in  the  internal  government,  than 
averse  to  the  abuses,  or  even  to  the  foreigners,  who  threat- 
ened their  national  independence.  The  popular  orators, 
mistaking  the  applause  of  Cadiz,  that  least  aristocratical 
and  least  devout  city  in  Spain,  for  the  opinion  of  the  nation, 
naturally  caressed  the  former  rather  that  the  latter  party. 
Hence  their  proceedings,  and  even  the  constitution  they 


AGUSTIN  ARGUELLES.  101 

framed  assumed  a  character  little  congenial  to  the  wishes 
or  wants  of  the  people  they  represented,  though  exempt 
frorp  many  of  those  errors  of  extravagant  democracy  and 
anti-monarchical  contrivances,  which,  some  vears  after- 
ward,  were  ignorantly  and  maliciously  urged  against  them 
throughout  Europe.  The  most  prominent  were  Don 
Agustin  Arguelles  and  the  Marquis  of  Matarrosa,  both 
natives  and  deputies  of  the  Asturies.  I  knew  Arguelles 
when  a  very  young  man,  at  Oviedo,  in  1793.  He  came 
afterward  to  England,  in  1806,  on  some  secret  mission, 
which  the  events*  of  that  year  prevented  him  from  execu- 
ting or  avowing.  He  remained  in  a  state  of  ill  health  in 
London  till  the  Spanish  revolution ;  and  when  about  to 
embark  at  Portsmouth  for  Lisbon,  he  met  and  returned 
with  Don  Andres  de  la  Vega  and  Matarrosa,  who  had  sud- 
denly arrived  from  the  Asturies,  charged  with  a  mission 
for  the  English  government  from  the  spirited  insurgents  of 
the  little  town  of  Oviedo.  He  was  a  man  of  reading  and 
reflection,  and  had  studied  our  literature  and  our  history 
with  great  success  during  his  residence  in  London,  though 
accidental  circustances  gave  him  a  very  false  and  unfavor- 
able impression  of  the  foreign  policy  of  England.  On  the 
very  first  opening  of  the  Cortes  he  acquired  a  great  as- 
cendant over  his  colleagues ;  he  soon  became  the  leader 
of  the  popular  party  in  that  assembly.  The  passion  for 
applause  so  dangerous  and  so  seductive  to  every  orator, 

*  Particularly  the  battle  of  Jena ;  for  I  suspect  (though  I  do  not 
know),  that  his  mission  was  connected  with  the  plan  of  a  confederacy 
with  the  Northern  Powers  against  France  ;  that  plan  was  discomfited 
by  the  defeat  of  the  Russians,  but  the  participation  of  Spain  therein 
was  detected,  as  I  have  before  observed,  by  the  French  at  Berlin, 


102  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 

and  a  propensity  to  suspicion,  unfortunately  prevalent  in 
the  mind  of  most  Spaniards  wherever  foreigners  are  con- 
cerned, led  him,  perhaps,  to  commit  many  errors  as  a 
legislator  and  a  statesman.  In  every  impartial  history  of 
those  times,  Arguelles  must  bear  his  share  of  the  blame 
which  attaches  to  the  mistakes  in  the  constitution,  to  the 
ill-timed  distrust  of  Lord  Wellington  and  the  English,  and 
to  the  unjust  and  impolitic  treatment  of  the  American  colo- 
nies ;  yet  his  unblemished  integrity,  and  the  dignified  earn- 
estness of  his  eloquence,  were  even  then  acknowledged, 
and  raised  the  Cortes  in  the  estimation  of  Europe.  He 
was  afterward  exposed  to  the  severer  trials  of  adversity; 
and,  notwithstanding  his  delicate  health,  he  bore  the  sutier- 
ings  which  the  inhuman  and  ungrateful  Ferdinand  inflicted 
on  his  benefactors  and  supporters,  with  equanimity  and 
fortitude.  For  eighteen  months  was  he  immured  in  the 
unwholesome  atmosphere  of  a  prison,  within  the  guard- 
house of  Madrid,  deprived  of  books,  pen  and  ink,  and  nearly 
of  light,  and  debarred  from  all  intercourse  but  with  his 
jailers ;  unconscious  of  all  that  was  passing  about  him  ex- 
cept the  riot  and  drunkenness  of  the  soldiery,  the  occa- 
sional remonstrances  of  his  fellow-sufferers,  Martinez  de  la 
Rosa  and  Manuel  Quintana,  who  were  the  tenants  of  sim- 
ilar adjoining  rooms,  and  on  one  occasion  the  festivities  of 
the  King  himself,  who  had  the  brutality  to  give  a  banquet 
over  the  dungeons,  or  at  least  within  the  hearing  of  the 
victims  of  his  cruelty.  Arguelles  was  afterward  removed 
to  a  fortress  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  Melilla.  The  compar- 
ative mildness  of  his  treatment  there  was  to  be  attributed 
to  the  sympathy  of  the  garrison,  the  humanity  of  the  gov- 
ernor, and  the  intercession  of  his  friends,  not  to  any  re- 


''      MA.TAREOSA.  103 


r 


morse  in  Ferdinand.  TFie  subsequent  career  of  Arguelles 
is  well  known.  During  his  ministry,  and  while  the  Cortes 
continued,  Ferdinand  distinguished  him  from  his  associates 
by  marked  dislike,  thereby  manifesting  his  discernment  in 
discovering  the  qualities  most  formidable  to  tyranny;  viz., 
consistency  of  principle,  firmness  of  spirit,  and  austerity  of 
virtue  in  public  and  private. 

'  Matarrosa  was  hardly  twenty  years  old,  when  he 
brought  the  news  of  the  massacre  of  the  2d  of  May  at 
Madrid  to  the  little  capital  of  the  Asturies ;  with  unexam- 
pled rapidity  prevailed  on  the  people  of  the  principality  to 
revolt,  and  conveyed  the  intelligence,  together  with  an  ap- 
plication for  assistance,  to  England.  He  was  thus  early 
initiated  in  public  affairs.  His  youth  and  services  com- 
bined with  considerable  natural  endowments  to  make  him 
a  favorite  with  the  first  Cortes  at  Cadiz.  He  was  surely 
more  pardonable  than  many  of  his  colleagues,  if  he  was  as 
inconsiderate  as  any  in  courting  popularity,  and  if  he  pre- 
ferred for  a  season  the  warm  applauses  of  the  people  to 
the  more  sober  approbation  of  his  judicous  countryman, 
Andres  de  la  Vega.  On  the  return  of  Ferdinand,  he  es- 
caped from  Spain,  and  was  in  his  absence  condemned  to 
death.  He  resided  in  France  till  the  re-establishment  of 
the  Spanish  Constitution  in  1820,  when  he  became  first  a 
minister,  and  afterward  an  active  and  useful  member  of 
the  Cortes.  Experience  had  improved  his  talents,  and 
moderated  without  changing  his  principles ;  but  his  habits 
at  Paris,  and  his  frequent  visits  to  that  city,  somewhat  in- 
jured his  popularity.  Moreover,  the  fortune  which  he  had 
inherited,  and  which  he,  perhaps,  improved  during  his  ad- 
ministration, rendered  him,  like  the  soldier  of  Lucullus,  less 
eager  to  mount  the  breach  than  he  had  been  at  the  outset 


104  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 

of  his  career.  He  had,  indeed,  retired  some  time  before 
the  war  of  1823  was  apprehended,  and  was  consulted  by 
the  Duke  of  WeUington  when  he  passed  through  Paris,  in 
1822,  to  Verona.  On  that  occasion  he  acknowledged  the 
defects  of  the  Constitution,  but  deprecated  the  notion  of 
rectifying  them  by  foreign  intimidation.  When  the  war 
broke  out  he  withdrew  to  England;  and,  since  its  fatal 
conclusion,  has  returned  to  Paris,  where,  if  somewhat 
more  of  an  Atlicus  than  a  Cato,  he  is  exempt  from  the  re- 
proach of  changing  any  principles,  or  truckling  to  any 
enemy  in  power. 

The  celebrity  of  the  Spanish  generals  in  the  revolution- 
ary war  is  not  sufficient  to  excite  much  curiosity  about 
their  personal  qualifications  and  history,  nor  would  my 
opportunities  enable  me  to  satisfy  it.  I  knew  little  of 
them.  The  Marquis  of  Romana,  more  of  a  soldier  than  a 
general,  was  a  good  scholar,  and  had  some  originality  of 
character.  After  a  good  education  at  Sorreze,  he  had 
distinguished  himself  by  his  courage  during  war,  and  by 
strange  adventures  with  gipsies  in  company  with  Lord 
Mount  Stuart  during  peace.  He  had  a  strong  predilection 
for  every  thing  English ;  be  rescued  his  army  from  Den- 
mark with  great  address,  and  was  always  a  favorite  with 
the  soldiery,  because  he  cheerfully  shared  all  their  bard- 
ships,  and  sincerely  partook  of  their  antipathy  to  the 
French.  General  Blake,  the  most  ill-starred^  of  com- 
manders, w^as  highly  accomplished  in  his  profession,  and 

*  In  more  than  one  of  his  well-written  dispatches,  he  spealis  of  his 
Mala  Estrclla.  I  am  in  possession  of  his  MS.  of  his  first  eampaigo 
in  Old  Castile  and  Biscay,  and  General  Foy  w^ho  read  it  a$  Holland 
House,  when  intending  to  write  a  history  of  the  Spanish  war,  as- 
sured me  that  it  w^as  the  work  of  an  accomplished  officer. 


BLAKE.— CASTANOS.— ALBUQUERQUE.  105 

j^i-    ■     .,.  —  ,————.-      -■■•   ...I '     '  - — ■— — " — —  -   —  ■  '  —  ^ 

remarkable  for  retaining,  in  spite  of  uniform  disaster,  great 
influence  over  the  officers  of  the  Spanish  army.  His  wife, 
when  Coruna  was  taken,  took  refuge  in  Plymouth.  She 
thought  herself  neglected  by  our  Government ;  and  that 
circumstance  confirmed  the  prejudices  against  England 
which  an  Irish  extraction  had  entailed  on  General  Blake. 
He  fomented  in  Spaniards  the  ill-timed  jealousy  of  their 
allies,  which  long  impeded,  and  nearly  counteracted,  all 
success  against  the  common  enemy. 

General  Castanos  had  grown  old  in  a  court,  and  was 
more  adapted  for  it  than  for  a  camp.  Hot  weather,  the 
plunder  and  baggage  with  which  the  French  had  encum- 
bered themselves,  and  the  self-sufficiency  of  their  com- 
mander, gained  for  him  the  victory  of  Baylen.  He  had 
the  good  sense  and  modesty  to  ascribe  his  success  to  those 
circumstances.  The  French  general,  Dupont,  had  the  bad 
taste  to  preserve  his  vanity  even  in  his  chagrin.  When 
he  delivered  his  sword  to  Castanos  he  said  :  "  You  may 
well.  General,  be  proud  of  this  day ;  it  is  remarkable  that 
I  have  never  lost  a  pitched  battle  till  now — I,  who  have 
been  in  more  than  twenty,  and  gained  them  all.''  "  It  is 
the  more  remarkable,"  replied  dryly  the  sarcastic  Span- 
iard, "  because  I  never  was  in  one  before  in  my  life." 

Albuquerque  was  reckoned  to  have  capacity  in  the  field. 
Off  it,  he  certainly  had  none.  The  strictures  on  his  con- 
duct agitated  him  so  much  that  he  sat  up  three  nights, 
without  food  or  sleep,  framing  an  answer  to  them,  and 
died,  with  the  assistance  of  Pere  Elisee,  a  Frenqh  physi- 
cian, in  a  paroxysm  of  fever  and  despair. 

I  never   saw   La  Cuesta,  Ballesteros,  or  O'Donnel.* 

*  Abisbal. 
B* 


106  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 

The  first  was  described  as  a  curious  and  almost  ludicrous 
specimen  of  an  impracticable  Spaniard.  He  was  eighty 
years  old  when  he  was  appointed  to  the  command — 
haughty,  suspicious,  ignorant,  and  obstinate,  but  patient 
of  fatigue,  alike  incapable  of  artifice  or  fear,  and  so  pe- 
dantically observant  of  the  forms  of  honor,  that  he  would 
sacrifice  to  punctilio  his  own  interests  and  glory  and  the 
cause  in  which  he  was  engaged,  deeming  it  a  less  dis- 
grace to  lose  ten  battles,  than  to  alter  dispositions  once 
approved,  or  to  yield  the  smallest  tittle  in  etiquette  to  an 
inferior  officer  or  a  foreign  ally.  Ballesteros,  though  he 
had  originally  risen  from  the  ranks  of  an  irregular  force, 
partook  of  the  same  spirit,  but  he  was  of  a  more  active,  or 
at  least  docile  age,  and  proved  himself  an  able  partisan  ; 
and,  notwithstanding  subsequent  appearances  to  the  con- 
trary, was,  I  believe,  sincerely  zealous  in  the  service  of 
his  country.  Not  so  O'Donnel :  he  retained  more  of  the 
nation  from  which  he  sprang,  than  of  that  in  which  he 
was  born,  and  educated  to  arms.  He  showed,  indeed, 
greater  talent,  and  had  more  success  than  all  the  other 
Spanish  generals ;  but  he  was  unsteady,  intemperate,  and 
unreasonable,  and  regardless  of  truth  and  character. 

Among  the  chiefs  of  guerillas.  Lord  Wellington  had  the 
highest  opinion  of  Mina,  who  justified  that  preference  by 
his  subsequent  conduct.  He  had  in  truth  a  great  fund  of 
mother  wit  in  all  things,*  as  well  as  courage,  activity,  and 
the  coup  d'ml  in  war. 

The  most  judicious  choice,  or  rather  the  most  fortunate 

^  What  the  Spaniards  call  strangely  enough  Gramatica  Parda^ 
tawny  grammar,  knowledge  and  tact  without  reading.  I  have  heard 
it  applied  to  Mina ;  and  I  translate  it  mother  wit. 


ALAVA.      '  107 

^  ■  ■  ■■  '  '  '  """       ■        ■■■    ^  ■        ■    I  ■■  .—,  m        ,  I..  ,     .■        ,     ■    PM    * I      ■      ■  ■■  I     -  1^^—,  I     ■    I     I  .    ■        HI,      ■III!  ■         -     -     .  Il» 

accident  for  the  confederate  war  in  the  Peninsula,  was  the 
appointment  of  Don  Miguel  Alava,  as  the  channel  of  com- 
inunication  between  the  English  head-quarters  and  the 
Spanish  government.  He  had  the  advantage,  no  small 
one  in  Spain,  of  a  naval  education.  He  had  seen  service, 
and  yet  was  conversant  with  the  manners  and  character 
of  the  court.  His  gallantry,  openness,  and  good  nature 
soon  ingratiated  him  with  the  English  army,  and  gained 
him  the  confidence  and  friendship  of  Lord  Wellington. 
He  had  some  of  the  prejudices,  but  none  of  the  suspicions 
of  his  countrymen.  Impetuous  in  temper,  and  heedless  in 
conversation,  he  was  yet  so  honest,  so  natural,  so  cheerful 
and  so  affectionate,  that  the  most  reserved  man  could 
scarcely  have  given  less  offense  than  he  who  commanded 
the  respect  and  won  the  affections  of  so  many  by  his 
intrepid  openness  and  sincerity.  He  was  imprisoned  on 
the  first  return  of  Ferdinand  to  Spain,  and  released  only 
at  the  personal  intercession  of  Lord  Wellington.  He  was 
then  named  embassador  to  the  Netherlands,  but  had  re- 
turned and  was  living  in  retirement  at  Vittoria  when  the 
Constitution  was  for  a  second  time  adopted  in  Spain.  It 
was  a  great  oversight  in  the  governments  which  suc- 
ceeded not  to  send  him  embassador  to  London.  At  one 
time  the  pedantry  of  not  employing  a  deputy,  at  another 
the  wish  of  rewarding  the  Duke  of  Frias  (a  strange  little 
man,  not  devoid  of  spirit,  but  quite  unfit  for  such  a  place), 
induced  them  to  neglect  so  obvious  and  so  useful  a  choice. 
Alava  would,  I  am  persuaded,  have  convinced  the  Duke 
of  Wellington  of  the  propriety  and  practicability  of  pre- 
venting a  French  invasion  of  Spain.  He  would  possibly 
have  rescued  his  country  from  the  calamities,  and,  what 


108^  FOREIGxN  REMINISCENCES. 

is  worse,  the  dishonor  which  has  ensued.  Fully  aware  of 
the  defects  of  the  Constitution,  General  Alava  felt  the  igno- 
miny of  altering  it  at  the  menace  of  foreigners,  and  nobly 
adhered  to  the  cause  of  his  country.  Ferdinand,  when 
conveyed  by  him  to  Port  Sta.  Maria,  invited  him  earnest- 
ly to  stay,  but  Alava  judiciously  distrusted  his  sincerity, 
and  somewhat  bluntly  reminded  him  that  he  had  been 
thrown  in  prison  in  consequence  of  relying  on  his  modera- 
tion before.  He  escaped  to  Gibraltar,  and  sailed  from 
thence  to  England.  The  Duke  of  Wellington  received 
him  cordially  and  generously.  The  same  qualities  which 
had  endeared  him  to  our  officers,  rendered  him  popular 
with  London  society.  He  was  welcome  every  where 
except  at  court.  George  IV.,  who  wears  his  crown  in 
virtue  of  the  exclusion  of  the  Stuarts,  afiected  not  to 
forgive  a  Spaniard  for  concurring  in  a  moment  of  national 
danger  in  the  temporary  dethronement  of  a  king  more  un- 
warlike  than  James  I.,  more  perfidious  than  either  Charles, 
and  more  arbitrary  and  cruel  than  James  II. 

I  know  little  of  Portugal  or  Portuguese  that  would  have 
the  interest  of  novelty  to  English  readers.  The  king  and 
queen,  very  opposite  in  principle,  character,  and  conduct, 
have  a  natural  abhorrence  of  one  another.  They,  in 
truth,  have  nothing  in  common  but  a  revolting  ugliness 
of  person  and  a  great  awkwardness  of  manner.  He 
is  well  meaning,  but  weak  and  cowardly,  and  so  appre- 
hensive of  being  governed  by  his  ostensible  ministers, 
that  he  becomes  the  victim  of  low  and  obscure  cabals, 
and  renders  his  councils  at  all  times  unsteady,  irreso- 
lute, and  uncertain.  The  Queen's  outrageous  zeal  in  the 
cause   of   despotism,  miscalled   legitimacy,  is   supposed 


ARAUJO.—FUNCHAL.  -iOQ 


r 


to  have  softened  his  aversion  to  a  representative  As- 
sembly and  a  constitutional  form  of  government.  The 
Queen  is  vindictive,  ambitious,  and  selfish,  and  has  strong 
propensities  to  every  species  of  intrigue,  political  or 
amorous. 

f  In  general,  the  leading  men  in  Portugal  are  not  de- 
ficient in  talents  or  knowledge.  Vanity  in  them  often 
acts  the  part  of  more  enlightened  patriotism  ;  but  they  are, 
full  of  little  jealousies  and  artifices,  and  more  cunning  in 
their  negotiations  with  powerful  states  than  wise  in  the 
management  of  their  own.  Araujo,  a  man  of  capacity, 
hoped  by  cajoling  England  and  France,  to  elude  the 
designs  of  both,  and  thus  ended  by  leaving  Portugal  in 
the  possession  of  one,  and  his  sovereign  and  the  Brazils 
entirely  at  the  mercy  of  the  other.  Souza,  Count  Funchal, 
anxious  to  assimilate  the  institutions  of  his  country  to 
those  of  England,  and  sincerely  attached  to  the  House  of 
Braganza,  contrived  to  pass  his  life  in  squabbling  with 
and  persecuting  the  Reformers,  and  to  lose  the  favor  of  his 
sovereign  by  declining  the  office  which  alone  could  enable 
him  to  execute  his  designs.  Yet  his  notions  w^ere  just 
and  enlightened ;  but  with  good  abilities  he  took  in- 
judicious and  indirect  ways  to  enforce  them.  He  conse- 
quently failed,  and  had  need  of  that  cheerfulness  of  temper 
and  pleasantry  in  conversation  in  which  he  abounded,  to 
console  him  for  the  many  political  and  personal  disappoint- 
ments to  which  he  was  exposed. 

I  never  was  in  Russia,  and  I  merely  passed  through 
Austria  in  the  spring  of  1796.  Their  governments  and 
leading  men  are  nearly  unknown  to  me. 

It  has  been  the  fashion  to  describe  the  Emperor  Francis 


110  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 

II.*  as  a  mild,  benevolent  man,  who,  without  shining  parts,  M 
had  sound  notions  of  justice,  and  great  disposition  to  exer-  " 
cise  it  impartially  and  mercifully.  It  may  be  so.  But  to 
all  appearance,  in  all  relations  of  life  he  has  acted  like  a 
person  of  a  character  directly  the  reverse.  As  he  received 
an  education  unusually  philosophical  for  a  prince,  his  mis- 
takes can  not  be  ascribed  to  that  ignorance  and  prejudice 
which  are  so  often  but  so  strangely  urged  as  palliations  of 
the  crimes  of  royalty.  At  the  commencement  of  his  reign 
he  imprisoned,  like  felonious  subjects,  in  contempt  of  the 
law,  or  at  least  the  usage  of  civilized  nations,  his  enemies, 

*  1837.  Since  writing  these  strictures  on  the  character  of  Francis 
II.  of  Austria,  I  have  seen  Federico  Confalonieri.  He  was  illegally- 
arrested  and  condemned  to  death  by  an  iniquitous  sentence,  about 
1823.  The  punishment  was  commuted,  by  a  mockery  of  mercy 
(itself  wrung  with  some  difficulty  from  the  Emperor  by  the  Empress 
and  other  ladies  of  fashion),  into  close  and  for  the  most  part  solitary 
imprisonment  of  fifteen  years  in  a  Moravian  fortress  !  Confalonieri 
ascribes  his  persecution,  and,  above  all,  the  unusual  and  relentless 
severity  of  his  imprisonment  to  the  cruelty  of  two  persons,  Metter- 
nich  and  the  Emperor  himself.  But  he  justly  remarks,  that  the 
greater  portion  of  the  crime  (and  such  horrid  acts  of  power  are 
crimes)  must,  in  all  presumptive  reasoning,  be  charged  on  the  Emperor. 
Prince  Metternich's  power  survived  his  master;  and  yet  on  the  death 
of  that  sovereign,  Confalonieri  was  immediately  released  from  his 
prison,  and  allowed  to  seek  safety  in  banishment.  In  this  mitigation, 
Metternich  not  only  acquiesced,  but  was  disposed  to  relax,  and  did 
afterward  concur  in  relaxing,  even  some  remaining  parts  of  the  sen- 
tence. Let  not  the  princes  of  unlimited  monarchy  take  the  benefit 
of  maxims  applicable  only  to  constitutional  kings.  Acts  of  baseness 
and  cruelty  perpetrated  under  them  are  their  own  and  not  their  advis- 
ers'— the  fruit  of  that  selfishness  and  obduracy  which  their  station 
naturally  engenders,  and  which  it  generally  produces  in  abundance. 


FRANCIS  II.  OF  AUSTRIA.  Ill 

civil  or  military,  whether  found  with  or  without  arms  in 
their  hands,  and  whether  taken  on  neutral  or  hostile  terri- 
tory. Witness  Semonville,  Maret,*  Beurnonville,  Lafay- 
ette, and  his  companions.  At  the  age  of  twenty-two,  he 
had  the  heart  to  tell  the  wife  of  the  latter,  a  woman  of 
unblemished  virtue,  in  the  discharge  of  an  heroic  duty, 
that  he  would  allow  her  to  join  her  husband,  but  on  the 
condition  that  she  was  never  to  quit  the  prison  in  which 
she  visited  him.  He  received  the  papers  of  the  French 
deputies  at  Rastadt,  murdered  within  his  lines^  without 
insisting  on  the  detection  and  punishment  of  the  murder- 
ers. He  either  consented  to  sacrifice  his  daughter  to  the 
cowardly  policy  of  propitiating  an  usurper  and  a  tyrant, 
or  he  basely  abandoned  and  dethroned  the  prince  whom 
he  had  selected  for  his  son-in-law.  He  separated  his 
daughter  from  her  husband,  and  helped  to  disinherit  his 
grandson,  the  issue  of  a  marriage  he  had  certainly  sanc- 
tioned, and  I  believe  earnestly  solicited.  With  a  view  of 
estranging  the  same  daughter  from  her  exiled  and  deposed 
husband,  whose  conduct  to  her  was  irreproachable,  he  is 
said  to  have  encouraged,  and  even  contrived  her  infidelities. 
Unlike  his  uncle  and  father,  he  checks  the  genius  and 
restrains  the   liberties   of  his   Italian  subjects.      Yet   his 

*  The  two  first,  employed  on  a  diplomatic  mission,  were  seized  on 
neutral  territory,  and  during  their  captivity  of  twenty-two  months 
were  treated  frequently  more  like  malefactors  than  prisoners  of  war, 
though,  in  truth,  they  were  neither.  They  had  actually  fetters.  It 
should  always  be  recollected  that  these  crimes  were  committed,  not  in 
countries  in  a  state  of  revolution  or  civil  war,  but  in  regular  heredi- 
tary monarchies i  professedly  fighting  for  the  cause  of  religion,  social 
order,  law,  and  subordination  ! 


112  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 

alternate  usurpation  and  abandonment,  barter  and  resump- 
tion of  those  territories  must  have  taught  them  to  con- 
sider allegiance  as  a  mere  question  of  convenience ;  and 
the  Emperor  must  be  satisfied  that  he  has  himself  been 
instrumental  in  dispelling  those  illusions  which  he  has  of 
late  endeavored  to  impose  by  severity  on  mankind.  Prince 
Metternich  bears,  no  doubt,  a  share  of  the  odium  attached 
to  such  measures  ;  but  it  is  unjust  to  acquit  the  principal 
in  order  to  load  the  accessory.*  That  minister,  originally 
a  partisan  of  the  French  faction,  and  then  a  tool  of  Napo- 
leon, has,  no  doubt,  since  the  fall  of  that  great  prince,  sup- 
ported the  system  which  succeeded  him.  He  seems  hardly 
qualified  by  any  superior  genius  to  assume  the  ascendency 
in  the  councils  of  his  own  and  neighboring  nations,  which 
common  rumor  has  for  some  years  attributed  to  him.  He 
appeared  to  me,  in  the  very  short  intercourse  I  had  with 
him,  little  superior  to  the  common  run  of  continental  poli- 
ticians and  courtiers,  and  clearly  inferior  to  the  Emperor 
of  Russia  in  those  qualities  which  secure  an  influence  in 
great  affairs.  Some  who  admit  the  degrading,  but  too 
prevalent  opinion  that  a  disregard  of  truth  is  useful  and 
necessary  in  the  government  of  mankind,  have,  on  that 
score,  maintained  the  contrary  proposition.  His  manners 
are  reckoned  insinuating.  In  my  slight  acquaintance  with 
him  in  London,  I  was  not  struck  with  them;  they  seemed 
such  as  might  have  been  expected  from  a  German  who 
had  studied   French   vivacity  in   the   fashionable   novels 

*  I  have  heard  it  observed,  and  I  believe  justly,  that  the  Emperor 
passed,  during  his  long  reign,  for  a  weak,  foolish,  but  good  sort  of  man ; 
but  that  he  deserved  none  of  these  epithets.  He  was  a  man  of  some 
understanding,  little  feeling,  and  no  justice. 


ALEXANDER  OF  RUSSIA.  113 

of  the  day.  I  saw  little  of  a  sagacious  and  observant 
statesman,  or  of  a  courtier  accustomed  to  very  refined  and 
enlightened  society.* 

The  address  of  Alexander  himself,  the  Emperor  of 
Russia,  was,  perhaps,  liable  to  a  similar  criticism.  But  he 
was  obviously  well  educated,  and  had  a  desire  to  please, 
founded  not  merely  on  vanity,  but  on  a  higher  sense  of 
duty,  and  a  real  good  nature  in  his  disposition.  Napoleon, 
who  had  trusted  too  far  to  the  ascendency  he  had  at  one 
time  assumed  over  his  mind,  accused  him,  when  emancipa- 
ted from  his  control,  of  matchless  artifice  and  duplicity,! 
*'C'est  un  veritable  caractere  Grec"  (said  he  to  Lord 
Ebrington  at  Elba),  words  which,  in  the  mouth  of  a  Cor- 
sican,  imply  the  summit  of  treachery  and  deceit.  But 
unsteadiness  and  inconsistency  are  not  necessary  proofs  of 
insincerity.  Alexander  was  placed  by  birth  in  a  station, 
and  received  from  Laharpe  an  education  infinitely  beyond 
the  scope  of  intellect  with  which  nature  had  endowed  him. 

*  His  dispatches  and  public  papers  of  late  years  (I  write  this  note 
in  1837,)  have  assumed  the  character  of  elaborate  and  subtle  disserta- 
tions on  public  law,  or  rhetorical  exercises  even  to  pedantry. 

f  Pozzo  di  Borgo,  though  far  from  stigmatizing  such  conduct  as 
Greek  duplicity,  as  did  Bonaparte,  concurred,  however,  with  his 
countryman  in  representing  Alexander  as  acting  a  part  throughout. 
He  was  never,  he  said,  the  dupe  of  Bonaparte,  he  always  distrusted 
and  always  meant  to  subvert  his  power.  Notwithstanding  this  testi- 
mony, I  adhere  to  my  opinion,  and  think  Alexander's  admiration  and 
devotion  were,  for  a  time,  unfeigned.  Subsequent  events  in  his  career 
show  he  was  susceptible  of  such  feelings,  and  it  was  not  unnatural 
on  his  revival  of  intimacy  with  Napoleon's  bitter  enemy  to  disclaim 
the  weakness  of  having  ever  been  his  dupe.  It  was  v/hat  a  weak 
man,  in  such  circumstances,  would  naturally  do. 


114  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 


Such  disproportion  between  the  natural  capacity  and  acci- 
dental contents  of  a  man's  mind  might  well  create  some 
confusion  and  irregularity.  Moreover,  the  Emperor  had  a 
dash  of  romance,  and  some  constitutional  predisposition  to 
mental  derangement,  which  unlimited  power  and  the  vicis- 
situde of  great  affairs  are  particularly  apt  to  bring  into 
action.  I  have  little  doubt  that  his  admiration  for  Napo- 
leon was  unfeigned,  and  blended  in  his  mind  wdth  some 
mysterious  notion  that  Providence  had  created  him  as  his 
coadjutor  and  guide.  When,  therefore,  at  the  theatre 
at  Erfurt*  he  roused  him,  and  seized  his  hand  with  enthu- 
siasm, on  hearing  from  the  stage  that 


t( 


L'amitie  d'ua  grand  homme  est  un  bienfait  des  cieux," 


he  was  not  vying  with  the  talents  of  the  great  actor  who 
uttered  the  sentiment,  but  honestly  and  unaffectedly  giving 
way  to  what  was  then  his  own.  It  was,  however,  during 
that  memorable  interview,  that  Alexander  began  to  be 
somewhat  alarmed  at  the  projects  and  even  nettled  at  the 
behavior  of  Napoleon.  Talleyrand,!  from  a  questionable 
preference  of  the  interests  of  peace  to  the  official  duties 
of  his  confidential  station,  ventured  secretly  to  apprise  the 
Emperor  of  Russia  that  the  object  of  the  interview  was  to 
engage  him  in  a  confederacy  against  Austria,  and  even 
went  so  far  as  to  advise  him  to  avoid  coming  to  Erfurt, 
or,  if  he  did,  to  resist  firmly  the  instances  of  Napoleon 

*  Marshal  Soult,  who  was  in  the  theatre,  and  witnessed  the  scenes 
told  me  that  Napoleon  was  half  asleep  or  dozing,  when  Alexander 
seized  his  hand  with  emotion,  and  observed,  that  that  fine  line  seemed 
to  be  addressed  to  himself,  he  felt  the  application  of  it,  &c. 

f  From  a  sincere  and  correct,  but  indiscreet  friend  of  Talleyrand's. 


ALEXANDER  OF  RUSSIA.  115 

to  make  war  upon  Austria.  On  his  arrival  there,  he  had, 
no  doubt,  frequent  opportunities  of  communicating  with 
Talleyrand,  and  that  minister's  sentiments,  highly  flatter- 
ing ,to  Alexander,*  were  not  calculated,  nor  perhaps  in- 
tended, to  rivet  or  to  perpetuate  his  confidence  in  Napo- 
leon. Some  differences,  amounting  to  altercations,  took 
place  ;  and  though  Alexander  probably  did  not  alter  his 
opinion,  and  certainly  did  not  openly  change  his  policy, 
he  yet  left  Erfurt  less  satisfied  with  his  great  ally,  and  less 
confidently  attached  to  his  system,  then  he  had  been  at  his 
arrival  there.  Still  his  predilections  continued,  and  it  was 
not  till  irresistible  necessity  separated  him  from  the  policy 
enjoined  by  Napoleon,  that  the  rupture  between  France 
and  Russia  occurred.  Had  Napoleon  been  less  unrea- 
sonable in  his  projects,  or  less  peremptory  in  exacting 
every  onerous  condition  of  the  treaties  he  had  imposed 
upon  Russia,  he  would  probably  have  retained  the  as- 
cendencv  he  had  assumed  over  the  councils  and  mind 
of  Alexander ;  and  had  Alexander  been  really  and  liter- 
ally as  powerful  as  his  title  of  "Autocrat"  supposes,  he 
would  not  certainly  have  reverted  to  the  same  state  of 
dependence  after  the  capture  of  Moscow  as  that  he  had 
submitted  to  ever  since  the  conferences  of  Tilsit. 

The  remonstrances  of  his  allies,  and  of  Bernadotte  in 
particular,  the  resolution  of  the  army  f  not  to  acquiesce 

*  When  the  conferences  at  Erfurt  had  closed,  and  the  two  car- 
riages were  drawn  up  to  the  door  in  different  directions  to  convey  the 
two  Emperors  to  their  respective  dominions,  Talleyrand  whispered 
to  Alexander,  as  he  went  dowm  stairs,  *'  Ah,  si  Voire  Majeste  pouvoit 
ee  tromper  de  voitureP* 

f  Sir  Robert  Wilson ;   confirmed  by  otlier  testimony  and  many 


116  FOREIGN  REMINISCExNCES. 

^- -—-  ■-■■■       ■     '  ■■        ■    '■-    — ■' '■     '  -,,. ._..,     .     .  ,...,„-,  ..„     .  ..■■■■■■I— ,   „.i,  Ml  lai^ 

in  any  peace  he  should  sign,  manifested  in  no  equivocal 
manner,  and  the  concurring  murmurs  of  the  nobiUty,  and 
even  of  his  own  family,  together  with  numberless  uncon- 
trpllable  circumstances,  overruled  his  inclination, .rescued 
him  from  the  councils  of  pusillanimity,  and  converted 
him,  in  spite  of  his  will  and  his  nature,  into  a  conqueror 
and  a  hero.  But  I  have  explained  the  occurrences  of 
that  time  elsewhere.*  The  rapid  turn  of  fortune  which 
ensued,  must  have  convinced  him  that  no  unalterable 
destiny  had  enchained  Victory  to  the  car  of  the  French 
Emperor.  It  was  pardonable  and  even  amiable  in  him 
to  be  dazzled  with  the  popularity  which  rewarded  the 
affability  of  his  manners  and  the  comparative  forbearance 
of  his  councils  on  his  first  occupation  of  Paris  in  1814. 
It  required  at  that  time  all  the  persuasion  and  art  of  Pozzo 
di  Borgo  (and  few  men  ever  possessed  a  larger  share  of 
both  those  commodities),  as  well  as  a  coincidence  of  for- 
tuitous circumstances,  to  prevail  on  him  to  acquiesce  in 
the  forced  restoration  of  the  Bourbons.  When  I  saw 
him  in  England,  and  for  many  months  afterward,  he  was 
much  taken  with  what  he  called  "  Idees  liherales.^^  f     He 

circumstances.  One  might  add,  that  about  and  from  this  time  that 
lively,  dexterous,  and  uble  man,  Pozzo  di  Borgo,  was  active  in  render- 
ing Alexander,  through  the  means  of  persuasion  and  intrigue,  irrecon- 
cilable with  Napoleon. 

*  Vide  Chap.  vii.  Part  i.  A  of  ray  MS.  Memoirs. 

f  He* -not  only  talked  "liberal  language,"  but  courted  the  "Liberal 
party,"  at  that  time  in  a  way  which,  if  it  did  not  prove  great  levity 
and  great  unsteadiness,  must  have  proceeded  from  yet  worse  qualities 
in  his  disposition,  and  such  as  are  described  in  Rulhiere's  History  of 
Poland  as  the  chief  ingredients  in  Russian  policy.  Lafayette  told  me 
that  he  met  Alexander  at  Madame  de  Stael's ;  he  took  him  aside,  and 


ALEXANDER  OF  RUSSIA.  117 

«i  ■      — ■ — ■ ' ' 

had  not  indeed  reduced  them  to  '^  Idees  nettes"  either  in 
his  conversation  or  his  understanding,  but  they  gave 
him  a  notion  of  imposing  representative  constitutions  on 
other  countries,  and  even  of  preparing  his  own  for  the 
reception  of  some  reforms  tending  that  way.  The  at- 
mosphere of  Vienna,  and  the  discussions  about  Poland, 
soon  afterward  damped  his  ardor  for  popularity.  Sur- 
prise, indignation,  and  fear  at  the  sudden  return  of  Na- 
poleon in  1815,  placed  him  at  the  head  of  the  opposite 
party  in  the  ensuing  war  and  subsequent  treaties.  A 
mixture  of  policy  and  superstition  suggested  the  Holy 
Alliance.  Alexander  blended  some  mysterious  notions 
of  duty  toward  God  with  schemes  of  worldly  policy, 
tyranny,  and  ambition.  He  was  at  that  time  in  some 
measure  under  the  dominion  of  a  Livonian  lady,  Madame 
Krudner,  who  after  some  celebrity  acquired  in  her  earlier 
years  by  the  beauty  of  her  person  and  the  freedom  of  her 
pen,  had  become  a  visionary  and  devotee,  and  either  pre- 
tended or  imagined  that  she  could  divine  the  intentions  of 

complained  of  the  narrow  prejudices  and  bad  conduct  of  "  vos  Bour- 
honsy  Lafayette  observed  they  were  not  liis^  but  hoped  that  misfor- 
tune and  experience  might  have  corrected  their  errors.  "  Du  tout,'* 
repfied  the  Muscovite  philosopher  and  Emperor;  "  ils  ne  sont  ni  cor- 
riges,  ni  corrigibles."  Lafayette,  though  somewhat  unwilling  to  pro- 
long such  a  conversation,  could  not  resist  asking  him  why,  with  such 
an  impression  of  their  incapacity,  he  had  bestowed  them  on  France. 
"  Ce  n'etoit  pas  moi,"  replied  Alexander,  "  ils  sont  venus  comme  une 
inondation,  I'un  de  Nancy,  I'autre  de  I'Angleterre."  The  last  asser- 
tion was  false  in  fact.  It  has  certainly  the  appearance  of  a  design  in 
Alexander  to  take  merit  with  the  Liberals  for  what  he  knew  he  did 
not  deserve ;  and  favors  Napoleon's  view  of  the  duplicity  of  his 
character. 


118  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 

Providence.  Alexander,  it  is  true,  was  soon  prevailed 
upon  to  remove  her  from  his  presence,  but  he  continued 
liable  to,  and  was  perhaps  never  entirely  exempt  from, 
illusions  of  supernatural  agency*  on  the  events  of  the 
world,  and  on  his  conduct  in  particialar.  He,  for  instance, 
wrote  in  his  own  hand  a  letter  of  invitation  to  an  ignorant 
visionary  woman  f  in  the  Pyrenees,  who  had  pretended 
to  the  gift  of  prophecy.  Other  traits  of  credulity  and 
superstition  have  been  related  to  me  by  persons  well  ac 
quainted  with  the  secrets  of  his  court.  A  morbid  rever 
ence  for  Napoleon  had  made  him  long  adhere  to  a  policy, 
which,  under  the  name  of  the  Continental  System,  was  at 
variance  with  the  wishes  and  interests  of  his  subjects :  an 
honest,  but  perhaps  equally  morbid  sense  of  duty  led  him 
latterly  to  espouse  a  principle,  which,  under  the  name  of 
legitimacy,  required  the  sacrifice  of  the  national  pre- 
judices, and  the  surrender  of  the  favorite  project  of  the 
Russian   cabinet  to  the    preservation   of  the   Turk,  that 

*  Talleyrand  told  me  (18th  Oct.  1830),  that  Louis  XVIII.  refused 
his  consent  to  a  marriage  between  the  Duke  of  Berry  and  a  sister  of 
Alexander,  from  a  persuasion  that  in  the  Imperial  family  of  Russia  the 
malady  of  insanity  was  hereditary. 

f  Her  name  was  Madame  Bouche.  She  pretended  to  have  seen 
the  Archangel  Michael.  She  was  conveyed  to  St.  Petersburgh,  and 
remained  there  some  time.  lodged  and  boarded  at  the  Emperor's  ex- 
pense. I  am  not  quite  sure  of  the  fact  of  his  writing  to  her  in  his  own 
hand,  though  it  was  so  related  to  me.  I  have  been  since  informed 
that  some  agent  or  embassador  was  instructed  to  write  to  her,  and 
furnish  her  with  the  means  of  proceeding  to  St.  Petersburgh.  Such 
particulars  are  immaterial,  the  main  part  of  the  story  is  true — he  con- 
sulted her.  She  was  past  fifty  years  old,  and  he  had  never  seen  her 
till  he  sent  for  her. 


ALEXANDER  OF  RUSSIA.  119 

»■    -'       ■  "      ■'"  '     '  ■—  ■       ■■■■■       ■    IW.-i..       I,  ■  ...■-■IIMMi  I,    .  .1.11  .  ■  MiM  ■  I    u  ■HMI-l    ■  ■  ■■!!  I 

natural    enemy   of  his    country,   and    persecutor   of   his 
religion. 

In  the  internal  government  of  his  vast  empire,  if  not  uni- 
formly consistent  and  judicious,  he  was  at  least  free  from  all 
taint  of  injustice,  cruelty,  or  revenge — no  shght  commend- 
ation of  a  man  in  possession  of  unlimited  power  for  nearly  a 
quarter  of  a  century  over  many  millions  of  his  fellow-creat- 
ures, and  in  a  country  inured  and  familiarized  to  iniquities 
and  atrocities  of  every  kind  in  their  rulers.  That  he  was 
an  accomplice  in  the  murder  of  his  father  has  not  been 
proved,  and  probably  is  not  literally  true.  That  according 
to  the  strict  maxims  of  political  morality,  which  he  aifected 
to  impose  upon  others,  he  was  a  sort  of  accessory  after  the 
fact  can  not  well  be  disputed.  He  not  only  accepted  the 
crown,  which  devolved  on  him  in  consequence  of  a  crime, 
but  he  left  the  criminals  unquestioned  and  unpunished. 
He  even  admitted  some  of  them,  such  as  Bennigsen,  the 
actual  assassin,  to  commands  of  great  trust  and  importance. 
Pahlen  his  chief  adviser,  certainly  knew,*  and  in  all  likeli- 
hood communicated  to  him  that  a  project  was  on  foot  to 
compel  Paul  to  abdicate  or  to  submit  to  great  restraints  on 
his  authority.  If  they  were  not  both  aware  of  particulars, 
it  was  prudence,  delicacy,  and  choice  alone  that  kept  them 
in  ignorance.  The  names  of  the  conspirators  were  known 
to  them.  Alexander,  though  young,  was  not  so  unversed 
in  the  history  or  so  ignorant  of  the  manners  of  his  country, 

*  I  had  proof  of  this  from  a  man  of  integrity  in  the  confidence  of 
Pahlen  ;  and  from  the  same  authority,  I  heard  many  particulars  of  the 
conspiracy,  the  assassination,  and  the  effects  of  it,  which  I  have  pre- 
served among  my  papers,  and  which  have  been  since  confirmed  by 
other  testimony. 


120  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 


nor  so  deficient  in  common  sagacity  as  not  to  conjecture 
what  must  be  the  termination  of  a  successful  conspiracy 
against  an  Autocrat.  He  foresaw  the  tendency,  and  wink- 
ed at  the  progress  of  the  plot ;  he  knew  the  violence,  but 
consented  to  reap  the  fruits  of  the  catastrophe.  On  the 
other  hand,  before  we  condemn  him,  we  must  weigh  well 
many  circumstances  in  excuse  or  palliation  of  the  degree 
of  connivance  which  can  be  fixed  upon  him.  In  the  first 
place,  he  had  reasons  to  entertain  apprehensions  not  only 
for  his  own  immediate  safety,  but  for  that  of  his  mother, 
whom  he  tenderly  loved.  He  witnessed  every  day  the 
misery  inflicted  by  the  frenzy  of  Paul  on  individuals,  and 
he  could  not  be  ignorant  that  it  threatened  to  involve  the 
empire  in  confusion  and  ruin.  Justice  and  humanity  called 
for  the  extinction  of  a  nuisance  of  such  vast  and  increasing 
magnitude.  There  is  no  mitigation  of  the  excesses  of  des- 
potism ;  violence  alone  can  remove  them.  Those,  there- 
fore, who  are  in  contact  with  such  disorders  must,  both  in 
principle  and  practice,  be  more  familiarized  with  forcible 
remedies,  and  more  pardonable  for  applying  them,  than 
persons  who  never  have  to  deal  with  symptoms  so  out- 
rageous. The  assassination  of  an  emperor,  even  by 
members  of  his  own  family,  is  no  uncommon  occurrence 
in  Russia  or  Turkey.  It  can  not,  perhaps  it  ought  not,  to 
excite  the  same  horror  there  as  in  more  refined  and  civil- 
ized societies.  Acquiescence,  or  even  participation  in  plots 
of  assassination,  is  not  a  crime  of'the  same  dye  in  despotic 
countries  as  in  those  where  the  force  of  law  and  the  mild- 
ness of  manners  render  such  bloody  expedients  unusual  and 
unnecessary.  Had  Alexander  denounced  the  plot,  or  even 
merely  defeated  the  execution  of  it,  he  would,  in  truth,  only 


ALEXANDER  OF  RUSSIA.  121 

^■■iHI    I  i»    mi    Mill-   1^1  ■       I   I         ■■  -  .... -.—.-   .— ...■  - — ... 1 ■      ■  I   ■   ...  I  .    ,  ^ — 

have  postponed  an  event  which  was  inevitable,  and  in  all 
probability  he  naust  either  have  fallen  in  the  interval  a  vic- 
tim to  his  father's  suspicion,  or  ultimately  have  shared  his 
fate  in  order  to  secure  the  impunity  of  the  conspirators. 

Such  scenes  justly  excite  the  abhorrence  of  good  men; 
but  it  is  not  against  the  actors,  but  against  the  system 
which  creates  and  in  some  sort  requires  such  guilt,  that 
their  indignation  should  be  directed.  It  has  been  a  fashion 
of  late  years,  and  one  much  sanctioned  by  the  prince  in 
question,  to  consider  legitimacy  and  hereditary  right  to 
power  as  nearly  synonymous.  But  legitimacy,  if  it  means 
any  thing,  implies  a  respect  and  honor  for  law.  Now  there 
is  no  scheme  of  government  in  which  the  laws  of  God  and 
nature  are  so  necessarily  violated,  and  in  which,  practical- 
ly, those  of  mankind  are  so  frequently  subverted,  as  in 
hereditary  despotism.  In  the  early  part  of  his  reign  Count 
Pahlen  had  great  influence  with  Alexander ;  but  Count 
Woronzow  betrayed  to  the  young  sovereign  the  low  opin- 
ion which  that  minister  had  formed  of  his  master's  talents, 
and  which,  in  the  confidence  of  old  friendship,  he  had 
imprudently  communicated  to  his  countryman  in  London. 
Pahlen  was  dismissed.  Whispers,  that  his  suspected  par- 
ticipation in  the  plot  which  deprived  Paul  of  his  throne  and 
his  life,  made  his  ostensible  power  indelicate  and  offensive, 
served  to  conceal  the  real  reason  of  his  retirement.  Czar- 
torinsky,  who  succeeded  him,  was  equally  distinguished  for 
abiUties  and  for  pure  and  lofty  disinterestedness  of  charac- 
ter. His  ministry  was  not  fortunate,  but  he  contributed  in 
no  slight  degree  to  infuse  into  the  minds  of  the  Emperor  and 
Empress,  and  indeed  of  the  whole  court,  more  elevated  and 
enlightened  notions  for  the  government  both  of  Poland  and 

F 


122  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 

Russia  than  had  hitherto  found  their  way  into  the  cabinet 
of  St,  Petersburgh.  To  him,  after  Laharpe,  Russia  and  the 
world  are  chiefly  indebted  for  such  benefits  as  they  have 
derived  from  the  prevalence  of  humane  principles  in  the 
mind  of  Alexander.  But  Czartorinsky  was  a  Pole,  exposed 
to  the  jealousy  and  suspicion  of  the  Russians,  and  perhaps 
too  much  occupied,  for  a  prudent  man,  in  providing  for  the 
welfare,  and  redressing  the  grievances  of  his  native  coun- 
try. He  lost  his  influence  in  the  councils,  but  not  his  hold 
on  the  affections  of  Alexander,  on  the  failure  of  the  confed- 
eracy in  1805.  After  the  peace  of  Tilsit,  he  retired  from 
public  employment,  and  he  probably  did  not  ingratiate 
himself  with  the  court  of  St.  Petersburgh  by  the  earnest- 
ness and  zeal  with  which  he  urged  the  restoration  of  Po- 
land, upon  the  resettlement  of  Europe  in  1814.  Alexander, 
endeavoring  to  imitate  Napoleon,  vainly  imagined  that  he 
could  administer  every  branch  of  public  affairs  throughout 
his  vast  dominions.  His  intentions  were  pure,  his  impar- 
tiality unquestionable,  but  he  had  neither  sagacity  nor 
knowledge  enough  to  secure  him  from  the  consequences 
of  misrepresentation,  or  the  errors  of  ignorance.  His  as- 
siduity was  indeed  sufficient  to  injure  his  health  and  impair 
his  mindf  but  quite  inadequate  to  the  pressure  of  business. 
Delays,  amounting  to  denial  of  justice,  often  ensued.  Real 
grievances  were  accumulating,  and  murmurs  and  com- 
plaints* were  increasing  at  the  time  of  his  death.  If  his 
accession  proves  how  little  security  princes  derive  from 

*  Alexander  was  perhaps  at  no  period  of  his  reign  either  so  popu- 
lar or  so  secure  in  Russia,  as  the  apparent  glory  of  his  achievements 
seemed  to  denote,  or  as  foreigners  imagined.  Marshal  Soult  told  me 
that  when  at  Tilsit,  he  (Soult)  was  apprised  of  a  very  extensive  con- 


NAPOLEON.  123 


unlimited  power,  his  administration  showed  that  the  best 
and  rarest  qualities  of  a  sovereign  are  insufficient  to  insure 
the  welfare  of  his  people  under  the  preposterous  system 
which  invests  him,  in  right  of  his  birth,  with  the  whole 
power  of  the  state. 

Such  prodigious  intellects  as  those  of  Csesar  or  Napo- 
leon seem  at  first  sight  to  offer  exceptions  to  the  remark. 
But  when  or  where  have  CiBsars  or  Napoleons  been  born 
or  bred  in  a  palace?  Is  it  clear  that  both  those  miracu- 
lous men,  with  minds  adequate  to  the  stupendous  task  of 
governing  vast  masses  of  their  fellow  creatures  by  their 
sole  will  and  pleasure,  had  not  other  qualities  necessarily 
associated  with  such  active  spirits  and  ardent  genius, 
which,  if  uncontrolled  by  law,  would  counteract  and  over- 
balance the  benefits  their  vigilance  and  discernment  were 
capable  of  conferring  on  mankind  ? 

Those  who  peruse  the  following  pages,  traced  certainly 
by  no  hostile  pen,  will  probably  discover  the  features  of 
such  a  character,  even  in  the  outlines  that  I  am  enabled  to 
preserve  of  the  greatest  prodigy  of  the  times  to  which  my 
notices  relate — Napoleon  Bonaparte. 

spiracy  against  him,  in  which  Bennigsen,  the  assassin  of  his  father,  and 
the  commander  of  his  army,  was  concerned.  Soult,  before  he  had 
consulted  his  own  government  on  the  matter,  disclosed  the  whole  in  a 
private  letter  to  Alexander,  and  mentioned  the  names  of  the  conspira- 
tors. He  showed  me  the  answer  of  Alexander,  in  his  own  handwrit- 
ing. He  thanks  Soult  in  it  very  warmly  for  the  information,  for  he 
says  it  will  be  of  great  use  to  him,  though  he  does  not  believe  that  the 
matter  is  quite  so  important  {tout-d-fait  si  consequent)  as  the  Marshal 
supposes.  Soult  added  to  me  with  some  bitterness,  that  the  letter 
should  some  day  appear,  together  with  that  in  which  the  same  Alex- 
ander refused  him  an  asylum  in  his  dominions. 


224  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 

I  proceed  to  transcribe  some  hasty  and  rambling  notes 
taken  when  the  news  of  his  death  reached  me  at  Paris 
in  1821.  They  contain  a  faithful  picture  of  impressions 
made  upon  my  mind  at  that  time.  The  reader  will  indeed 
remark  that  I  had  little  personal  intercourse  with  Napo- 
leon ;  but  he  will  estimate  the  opportunities  I  had  of  con- 
versing with  those  most  capable  of  giving  me  information 
more  easily  than  if  I  had  reduced  my  notes  to  a  more 
regular  and  methodical  narrative.  I  have,  however,  omit- 
ted such  facts  as  I  have  subsequently  had  reason  to  believe 
untrue,  and  also  such,  on  the  other  hand,  as  have  appeared 
in  print  on  as  good  or  better  authority  than  my  own. 

The  Emperor  Napoleon  died  at  St.  Helena  on  the  5th 
of  M*ay,  1821.  Some  hours  before  the  news  was  generally 
known  in  Paris,  a  note  in  pencil  was  left  at  my  door,  with- 
out signature  or  date,  directed  to  Lady  Holland,  and  ap- 
prising her  shortly,*  but  with  concern,  of  the  event.  The 
intelligence  had  been  conveyed  from  Calais  by  telegraph. 
Few  days  elapsed  before  Lady  Holland  received  the  two 
following  letters  from  Sir  Hudson  Lowe : 

,,  T.  7VT  "  St.  Helena,  6th  May,  1821. 

"Dear  Madam,  -^ 

"  The  compassionate  interest  which  your  Ladyship  has 

so  constantly  and  in  so  generous  a  manner  shown  toward 

the  remarkable  person  who  had  been  so  long  under  my 

charge,  imposes  it  as  a  duty  on  me  to  take  the  earliest 

opportunity  of  informing  you  that  he   breathed   his  last 

yesterday  evening  at  about  ten  minutes  before  six  o'clock. 

*  I  think  the  words  were  : 

"  Le  grand  homme  est  mort." 
See  Appendix,  No.  TV. 


NAPOLEON.  '  125 


The  public  accounts  render  it  unnecessary  for  me  to  enter 
into  any  particular  details  as  to  the  causes  of  his  death. 
His  father  died  of  the  same  complaint,  a  scirrhous  cancer 
of  the  stomach,  near  what  is  called  the  pylorus.  It  was 
beyond  the  power  of  medicine  to  have  saved  him.  Every 
assistance  which  the  means  of  this  island  could  afford  was 
tendered  to  him.  He  appeared  conscious  of  his  approach- 
ing fate,  and  would  receive  the  visits  of  only  one  English 
medical  person  in  addition  to  his  own  medical  attendant, 
!Professor  Antommarchi.  He  died  without  appearing  to 
suffer  much  pain.  Praying  my  best  respects  to  Lord  Hol- 
land, I  remain, 

.  "  Your  Ladyship's  most  obliged- 

"  and  faithful  servant, 
(Signed)  "  H.  Lowe." 

"  To  the  Rt.  Hon.  The  Lady  Holland." 

"  Dear  Madam,  "  ^''  H^^^^^'  '''^  ^^^^^  ^^^'' 

'  *'  On  looking  over  the  effects  left  by  Bonaparte,  in  com- 
pany with  Count  Montholon  and  Marchand,  his  valet  de 
chambre,  I  observed  two  snuff-boxes  of  wrought  gold,  one 
of  them  with  a  cameo  of  very  large  size  set  in  the  cover 
of  it,  representing  a  goat  with  a  fawn  riding  upon  it,  nib- 
bling at  some  grapes  on  a  vine  stalk.  Count  Montholon 
informed  me  it  had  been  a  present  from  Pope  Pius  VII.* 
to  Bonaparte  at  the  peace  of  Tolentino.  The  other  box 
was  of  a  plainer  kind,  and  had  simply  an  N  engraved  or 
rather  cut  in  with  the  point  of  some  sharp  instrument  on 
the  top  of  it.  After  some  time  had  passed  in  looking  at 
various  other  things  in  the  apartment,  I  returned  to  the  spot 
*  Sic  in  MS.,  a  mistake  for  Pius  the  SixQi. 


IS6  FOREIGN  REiMINISCENCES. 

where  the  boxes  lay,  and  taking  up  the  first  of  them  to 
admire  the  beauty  of  the  cameo,  I  afterward  opened  the 
lid  of  it,  when  I  observed  a  card  at  the  bottom  of  the  box 
exactly  cut  to  its  size,  and  the  following  words  in  Bona- 
parte's own  hand  written  upon  it:  "L'Empereur  Napoleon 
k  Lady  Holland,  temoignage  de  satisfaction  et  d'estime." 
On  the  back  of  the  card  was  written  in  another  hand  : 
Donne  par  le  Pape  Pius  VII.*  a  Tolentino,  1797."  Counts 
Montholon  and  Marchand  both  expressed  their  surprise  at 
the  discovery  f  I  had  made,  and  said  they  had  not  known 
of  such  a  card  being  within  the  box,  but  Count  Montholon 
added  he  had  been  charged  to  present  the  box  to  your 
Ladyship.  The  other  gold  box  which  had  the  N  cut  upon 
the  top  of  it,  Count  Montholon  told  me  he  had  been  direct- 
ed to  present  to  Dr.  Arnott.  It  was  half  full  of  snufF, 
being  the  last  box  Bonaparte  had  in  use,  and  the  N  upon  it 
had  been  cut  by  himself.  He  had  directed  also  a  '*somme 
d'argent"  to  be  delivered  to  Dr.  Arnott.  I  have  acquainted 
Lord  Bathurst  of  these  bequests. 

*'  Praying  my  best  respects  to  Lord  Holland,  I  remain, 
"  Your  Ladyship's  most  obliged 

"and  most  faithful  Servant, 
(Signed)  "  H.  Lowe." 

*  It  should  be  VI. 

f  I  am  not  sure  that  Sir  Hudson  Lowe  did  not  mean  to  imply  by 
this  expression  that  but  for  his  discovery  the  box  would  never  have 
reached  its  destination.  At  least,  observations  of  his  nearly  to  that 
purport  have  been  repeated  to  me.  But  the  legacy  is  bequeathed  and 
described  in  the  will.  Indeed  it  is  the  first,  or  nearly  the  first  article 
in  it.  Any  insinuation  of  a  wish  or  a  design  any  where  to  defraud 
Lady  HoP-'Md  of  the  box  would  be  as  groundless  as  it  would  be  ma- 
licious. 


NAPOLEON.  127 


The  legacy  announced  in  the  preceeding  letter,  and 
which  was  some  months  afterward  delivered  in  great 
form*  to  Lady  Holland  at  Holland  House  by  the  Counts 
Montholon  and  Bertrand,  was  mentioned  in  the  public 
newspapers  very  soon  after  the  intelligence  of  the  death 
of  Napoleon  had  reached  Paris.  That  circumstance  and 
the  notoriety  of  the  attention  shown  by  Lady  Holland  to 
the  illustrious  prisoner  during  his  exile,  introduced  us  to 
the  society  of  those  who  openly  professed  or  sincerely 
felt  most  veneration  for  the  memory  of  Napoleon  in 
France.  From  their  conversation  the  substance  of  the 
following  notes  is  derived;  but  as  the  reader  may  be 
desirous  to  know  how  far  I  was  qualified  either  to  correct 
or  estimate  the  representations  I  heard,  by  any  previous 
personal  observation,  it  may  be  necessary  to  state  the  ex- 
tent and  nature  of  such  little  intercourse  as  subsisted  between 
Napoleon  and  us,  either  before  or  after  his  captivity. 

Both  Lady  Holland  and  myself  were  presented  to  him 
in  1802,  when  he  was  First  Consul.  He  saw  her  only 
once,  and  addressed  some  usual  questions  and  compli- 
ments to  her,  but  had  no  conversation;  though  I  have 
reason  to  believe  that  he  was  aware  of  the  admiration 
she  entertained  and  avowed  for  his  military  and  political 
genius.  I  stood  next  to  him  in  the  circle  when  he  re- 
ceived and  answered,  in  a  short  written  speech  (hastily 
and  somewhat  awkwardly  delivered),  the  deputation  head- 

*  The  two  gentlemen  came  in  the  Imperial  uniform !  Strange 
and  mortifying  reflection  to  human  pride  that  those  who  had  devoted 
themselves  to  a  man  of  great  intellect,  should  imagine  that  they 
honored  his  memory  by  aping  the  absurd  fonns  of  other  sovereigns 


or  pretenders. 


J28  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 

ed  by  Barthelemi,  which  came  to  confer  upon  him  the 
consulship  for  life.  He  spoke  very  civilly,  but  very  little 
to  me  on  that  occasion ;  and  scarcely  more  when  I  dined 
and  passed  the  evening  at  his  court,  in  company  with 
Mr.  Fox,  with  whom  he  conversed  at  considerable  length 
on  various  matters,  and  more  particularly  on  the  Con- 
cordat. These  were  the  only  opportunities  I  ever  had 
,  of  observing  his  countenance  or  hearing  his  voice.  The 
'  former,  though  composed  of  regular  features,  and  both 
penetrating  and  good-humored,  was  neither  so  dignified 
nor  so  animated  as  I  had  expected ;  but  the  latter  was 
sweet,  spirited,  and  persuasive  in  the  highest  degree,  and 
gave  a  favorable  impression  of  his  disposition  as  well  as 
of  his  understanding.  His  manner  was  neither  affected 
nor  assuming,  but  certainly  wanted  that  ease  and  attrac- 
tion which  the  early  habits  of  good  company  are  supposed 
exclusively  to  confer.  We  traveled  through  France  to 
Spain  that  year  (1802),  and  received  from  the  prefects 
and  public  officers  of  every  town  we  passed  through, 
every  possible  mark  of  attention.  We  attributed  this  to 
its  real  cause,  the  disposition  of  the  Consul  to  cultivate 
the  good-will  of  the  friends  of  peace  in  England,  and  of 
all  connections  of  Mr.  Fox  in  particular,  and  my  old 
friendship  with  Talleyrand,  who  was  at  that  time  his 
confidential  minister,  and  not  disinclined  to  give  full  effect 
to  the  general  policy  of  the  Consular  government  in  the 
shape  of  particular  acts  of  kindness  and  judicious  hospital- 
ity to  us. 

After  the  first  abdication,  and  the  retreat  of  the  Em- 
peror to  Elba  in  1814,  Lady  Holland  conveyed  from 
Florence  and  from  Rome  some  messages  of  civility,  and 


NAPOLEON.  129 


furnished  him  with  one  or  two  packets  of  English  news- 
papers, which  she  was  informed  he  had  been  anxious  to 
peruse,  and  unable  to  procure.  In  acknowledgement  of 
these  little  acts  of  attention,  I  think  that  he  sent  her,  before 
he  left  Elba,  some  small  but  curious  specimens  of  the 
iron  ore  of  that  island.  It  is  remarkable  that  in  one  of 
those  papers  so  sent  by  Lady  Holland,  was  a  paragraph 
hinting  a  project  among  the  confederates  of  transporting 
him  to  St.  Helena.  True  it  is,  that  such  an  idea,  how- 
ever inconsistent  with  honor  or  good  faith,  was  started 
and  discussed,*  though  probably  never  committed  to  paper 
at  the  Congress  of  Vienna,  before  Napoleon  left  Elba. 
It  is  just  to  add,  that  it  was  discountenanced  and  rejected 
by  Austria.  In  confirmation  of  so  base  a  design  having 
been  entertained,  it  is  observable  that  a  negotiation  with 
the  East  India  Company  to  place  St.  Helena  f  under  the 
control  of  Government,  with  no  other  probable  or  ostensi- 
ble object  for  such  a  measure,  was  actually  commenced 
in  March,  1815,  and  discontinued  on  the  landing  of  Napo- 
leon in  that  month.  Any  well-grounded  suspicion  of  such 
a  proceeding  was  surely  sufficient  to  release  the  exiled 
Emperor  from  the  obligations  of  his  treaty  and  abdication 
of  Fontainebleau,  and  to  justify  his  attempt  to  recover 
the  Empire  he  had  so  recently  lost.     We  were  at  Rome 

*  I  stated  this  fact  in  the  House  of  Lords  in  the  debate  on  the 
treatment  of  General  Bonaparte,  and  /  was  not  contradicted :  I  had 
it  in  truth  from  an  Englishman  of  veracity  employed  at  the  Congress 
of  Vienna,  who  told  it  me  after  Napoleon's  arrival  at  Paris,  but  before 
the  battle  of  Waterloo. 

f  From  Admiral  Fleming,  nephew  of  the  East  Indian  Director 
Elphinston,  both  men  of  honor,  veracity,  and  intelligence. 

F* 


130  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 


when  he  reached  Paris,  and  at  the  suggestion,  I  believe, 
of  his  brother  Louis,  he  sent  us  a  passport,  which  reached 
us  on  our  journey  between  Radicofani  and  Sienna.  We 
never  endeavored  to  avail  ourselves  of  it.  The  rapid 
termination  of  the  war  rendered  it  unnecessary.  If  we 
had,  we  should,  in  all  likelihood,  have  found  it  useless, 
for  the  jealousy  of  the  allies  had  rigorously  closed  all  com- 
munication or  intercourse  whatever  with  France.  We 
arrived  at  Dover  nearly  at  the  same  time  that  Napoleon 
was  brought  to  England  in  the  Bellerophon  by  Captain 
Frederick  Maitland.  That  high-spirited  officer's  scruples 
in  promising  nothing  but  what  he  knew  he  could  perform, 
his  steadfast  adherence  to  what  he  did  promise,  and  his 
conduct  throughout  both  to  his  illustrious  prisoner  and 
his  own  government,  were  highly  honorable  to  the  char- 
acter of  the  service  and  himself;  but  generosity  to  a  fallen 
enemy,  neither  in  his  case  nor  in  that  of  Captain  Usher, 
who  had  conveyed  Napoleon  to  Elba,  recommended  those 
who  displayed  it  to  the  favor  of  the  Admiralty.  The 
headstrong  zeal  of  Napoleon's  adherents  has  often  injured 
his  cause,  and  exposed  him  to  the  imputation  of  indirect- 
ness and  perfidy,  which  he  sometimes  but  very  rarely 
deserved.  Some  of  them  most  injudiciously  as  well  as 
falsely  accused  Captain  Maitland  of  artifice  in  inveigling 
the  Emperor  on  board,  and  of  equivocation  in  interpreting 
the  conditions  on  which  he  received  him.  To  neither 
of  these  most  unfounded  charges  was  Napoleon  himself 
directly  or  indirectly  a  party ;  and  the  falsehood  con- 
tained in  them,  as  well  as  in  many  other  writings  of 
his  eager  partisans,  can  not  in  equity  reflect  on  his  per- 
sonal or  political  character. 


NAPOLEON.  131 


When  the  ungenerous  decision*  by  which  this  great 
prisoner  was  to  be  conveyed  to  St.  Helena  was  known, 
Lady  Holland  hastened  to  apply  to  government  for  per- 
mission to  send  such  articles  as  in  her  judgment  were 
likely  to  contribute  to  his  comfort  or  amusement  in  that 
distant  exile.  She  improved  her  slight  acquaintance  with 
Sir  Hudson  Lowe,  and  by  every  civility  in  her  power 
endeavored  to  obtain  from  him  all  the  facilities  consistent 
with  his  duty  and  instructions  for  carrying  her  intentions 
into  execution.  She  failed  in  both  these  attempts.  Lord 
Bathurst  informed  her  that  no  present  could  be  sent  to 
General  Bonaparte,  but  that  government  would  willingly 
purchase  and  convey  to  him  any  thing  which  could  be 
suggested  as  conducive  to  his  comfort.  Lady  Holland 
happened  to  know  that  the  Emperor  liked  even  in  less 
sultry  climates  to  drink  both  water  and  wine  extremely 
cold.  She  had  been  on  the  point  of  buying,  at  a  consider- 
able price,  a  newly  invented  machine  for  making  ice  ;  and 
in  answer  to  Lord  Bathurst's  message,  she  gave  him  the 
direction  of  the  maker,  and  suggested  the  purchase. 
The  machine,  however,  was  neither  purchased  nor  sent. 
Lady  Holland  nevertheless  persisted,  and  contrived  to  send 

*  With  whom  that  decision  originated,  I  am  not  sure.  Nothing 
could  be  Jess  Uberal  or  dignified  than  the  subsequent  conduct  and  lan- 
guage of  George  IV.  respecting  Napoleon  and  his  family.  It  was  a 
contrast,  not  a  copy,  of  the  Black  Prince  to  King  John.  Yet  the  first 
impression  produced  on  his  mind  by  Napoleon's  celebrated  letter,  if 
not  very  creditable  to  the  taste  or  judgment  of  the  Prince  Regent, 
was  not  unfavorable  to  the  writer.  He  remarked  that  the  words  with 
which  it  began,  "Altesse  Royale,"  were  quite  correct  and  proper, 
"  more  correct,  I  must  say,"  added  he,  •'  than  any  I  ever  received 
from  Louis  XVIII," 


132 


FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 


together  with  new  publications  and  trifling  presents  to 
Sir  Hudson,  similar  marks  of  remembrance  to  Napoleon, 
They  were  often  delayed,  from  excessive  scruple  or  from 
less  pardonable  motives,  at  the  Government  House ;  yet 
the  in%)cent  nature  of  the  memorials  themselves  secured 
their  ultimately  reaching  their  destination.  Various  ob- 
stacles however,  presented  themselves  to  this  insignifi- 
cant intercourse.  A  natural  and  pardonable  pride  deterred 
Napoleon  from  applying  for  any  thing ;  a  more  mistaken, 
and  in  my  judgment  contemptible  punctilio,  led  him  to  re- 
ject any  communication  in  which  his  title  of  Emperor  was 
not  preserved.  Advantage  was  taken  of  such  circum- 
stances to  withhold  many  convenient  and  necessary  sup- 
plies, and  to  straiten  his  intercourse  with  the  inhabitants  of 
the  island,  or  with  such  strangers  as  accidentally  visited  it. 
The  privations  and  petty  vexations  to  which  the  inhabit- 
ants of  Longwood  were  exposed,  are  probably  misrep- 
resented or  exaggerated  by  the  vulgarity  and  ignorance 
of  the  author,  in  the  publication  of  Santini  in  1817;  but 
there  was  undeniably  a  shameful  want  of  attention  to  their 
wishes  and  interests,  and  occasionally  unmannerly  harsh- 
ness in  the  Governor  toward  the  illustrious  prisoner  and  his 
companions.  There  was  little  or  no  tenderness  to  his 
feelings,  or  to  those  of  his  family,  in  the  Secretary  of 
State's  office  at  home.  If  letters  from  his  relations  were 
not  actually  intercepted,  no  facility  was  afforded  for  con- 
veying them.  One  from  his  mother  was  not  only  read  but 
mislaid  for  a  considerable  time  among  the  inferior  clerks 
of  the  office.  As  Napoleon  prudently  declined  drawing 
on  the  funds  he  possessed  in  Europe,  because  the  drafts 
and  consequently  the  depositaries  of  such  sums  must  have 


NAPOLEON  AT  ST.  HELENA.  .    103 

been  in  that  case  communicated  to  his  jailers  and  enemies, 
and  as  much  required  by  himself  and  his  suite  was  not  fur- 
nished to  them  by  the  English  Government,  he  was  com- 
pelled to  borrow  from  the  private  fortunes  of  his  compan- 
ions, or  to  raise  money  in  the  island  by  the  sale  of  his 
plate  and  other  superfluities.  The  notoriety  of  such  cir- 
cumstances, possibly  the  sensation  excited  by  the  publica- 
tion above  alluded  to,  and  the  effect,  I  flatter  myself,  of  my 
motion*'  in  the  House  of  Lords,  produced  some  little  relax- 
ation. At  least  letters  from  the  Emperor's  family  intrusted 
to  the  Secretary  of  State  were  henceforward  more  regu- 
larly transmitted.  Provisions,  clothing,  and  books  pur- 
chased by  them  and  sent  to  the  same  office,  were  also  for- 
warded ;  and  Lord  Bathurst,  some  time  afterward,  not 
only  consented  to  convey  articles  from  Lady  Holland  to 
Napoleon  and  Sir  Hudson  Lowe,  but  apprised  her  regu- 
larly of  ships  that  sailed  for  St.  Helena,  and  after  due  ex- 
perience of  her  scrupulous  adherence  to  the  rules  he  im- 
posed, allowed  all  parcels,  books,  and  cases  indorsed  with 
her  handwriting  and  name  to  proceed  without  further  in- 
spection to  their  destination.  Lady  Holland  had  the  satis- 
faction of  knowing  that  many  of  those  articles  were  re- 
ceived and  approved  of.  Napoleon  never  wrote,  but  he 
mentioned  her  name  and  her  attentions  more  than  once  to 
persons  who  repeated  his  acknowledgments  to  her.  The 
legacy  was,  however,  a  gratifying,  and  by  her  an  unex- 

*  The  motion  referred  to  some  facts  in  common  with  the  statement 
of  Santini,  but  it  was  in  nowise  connected  with  that  pamphlet  or  its 
author,  nor  did  the  information  on  which  I  grounded  it  rest  in  any 
degree  on  his  authority  and  representations,  as  Lord  Bathurst  in  his 
answer,  with  some  dexterity,  affected  to  think  it  did. 


134  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 

pected  proof,  that  such  endeavors  to  express  her  admira- 
tion of  his  great  qualities,  and  even  to  soothe  his  afflictions 
had  not  been  altogether  unsuccessful.  The  testimony  of 
his  ov\^n  handwriting,  the  words  so  judiciously  chosen,  even 
the  pains  taken  to  fit  the  card  to  the  box,  enhanced  the 
value  of  the  bequest,  for  they  proved  that  Napoleon  under- 
stood her  motives,  and  that  they  had  occupied  for  some 
little  space  of  time  the  thoughts,  as  well  as  excited  the 
good-will  of  that  extraordinary  man.  The  whole  was  in 
good  taste.  Had  the  gift  been  greater,  she  could  not  have 
accepted  it ;  had  the  expressions  been  stronger,  they  would 
not  have  appeared  sincere.  Surely  to  have  afforded  satis- 
faction to  a  man  so  calumniated,  so  persecuted,  and  so  ill- 
treated,  and  to  have  excited  the  esteem  of  a  mind  so  ca- 
pacious and  so  penetrating,  is  no  slight  distinction.  Lady 
Holland  found  in  the  knowledge  of  it  an  ample  reward  for 
her  constant,  unremitting,  and  unostentatious  compassion 
and  generosity.  There  was  a  disposition  in  the  people  of 
Paris  to  disbelieve  in  the  death  of  Napoleon,  there  was 
more  in  the  middling  classes  to  attribute  it  to  poison,  and 
there  was  some  in  the  court  to  affect  the  magnanimity  of 
stifling  all  resentment  toward  the  departed  hero. 

*'  Caesar  could  weep,  the  crocodile  could  weep, 
To  see  his  rival  of  the  universe 
Lie  still  and  peaceful  there." 

It  was  easier  to  imitate  the  hypocrisy  than  the  other 
qualities  of  a  Caesar.* 

Mourning  was  worn  by  many,  especially  on  the  15th 
August,  the  festival  of  St.  Napoleon.     Publications  on  his 

*  See  the  documents  in  Appendix  V. 


NAPOLEON'S  FAMILY.  135 


character,  life,  and  death  were  numerous,  and  generally 
more  full  of  commendation  than  of  censure.  Portraits, 
engravings,  and  prints  in  allusion  to  his  exile  and  death 
were  bought  up  with  an  avidity  which  alarmed  the  police, 
and  led  to  a  temporary  suppression  of  the  exhibition  of 
such  articles  in  the  shops. 

The  substance  of  the  conversation  of  those  best  informed 
on  such  subjects  in  Paris,  1821,  may  be  collected  from  the 
following  notes  of  what  I  heard ;  I  do  not  vouch  for  the 
correctness  of  every  particular.  Where,  however,  I  do 
not  mention  the  relater,  I  consider  the  source  from  which 
I  derive  the  facts  to  be  authentic,  or  I  have  heard  them  so 
frequently  asserted  without  contradiction,  that  I  believe 
them.  Where  I  do  mention  the  relater,  the  reader  may 
judge  of  the  value  of  the  evidence  I  adduce. 

Enough  is  known,  from  his  own  testimony  or  others' 
researches,  to  satisfy  the  curiosity  of  the  public  about  his 
descent,  and  to  prove,  in  refutation  of  the  vulgar  calum- 
nies of  the  day,  that  if  neither  illustrious  nor  extraordinary, 
it  was  such  as,  according  to  the  usual  way  of  estimating 
such  matters  in  France  and  Italy,  would  entitle  his  family 
to  the  appellation  of  noble.*  His  father  was  on  some 
occasion  chosen  as  deputy  of  that  class,  and  both  he  and 
one  of  his  sisters  were  educated  at  schools  in  France, 
where  proofs  of  their  bel6nging  to  a  gentleman's  family 
were  exacted.  By  the  concurrent  testimony  of  more  than 
one  of  his  relations,  his  uncle  Ramolino,f  a   Canon  of 

*  Serra,  Pozzo  diBorgo,  Louis  Bonaparte,  Napoleon's  own  conver- 
sations, and  many  other  persons  as  well  as  documents  confirm  this  fact. 

f  Pozzo  di  Borgo  thought,  when  I  related  this  circumstance  to  him, 
which  I  had  heard  from  Fesch  and  Louis  Bonaparte,  that  it  must 


136  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 


Ajaccio,  was  a  man  remarkable  for  his  sense  and  attain- 
ments, and  of  sagacity  sufficient  to  discern  the  superiority 
of  his  nephew,  and  to  recommend  on  his  death-bed  all  the 
young  men  of  the  family  to  defer  in  the  most  important 
concerns  of  their  lives  to  the  judgment  and  advice  of  their 
second  brother,  Napoleon. 

Napoleon  was  born  at  Ajaccio  in  1769.  It  was  affirmed 
by  many  that  he  was  at  least  a  year  older,  and  concealed 
his  real  age  from  an  unwillingness  to  acknowledge  his  birth 
in  Corsica,  at  a  period  when  that  island  formed  no  part  of 
the  French  dominions.  The  story  is  an  idle  one.  A  yet 
more  idle  one  was  circulated  that  he  had  been  baptized 
by   the   name   of  Nicholas,*   but   from   apprehension   of 

have  been  his  paternal  uncle,  Lucien  Bonaparte,  not  his  maternal 
uncle  Ramolino,  of  whom  it  was  related.  I  think  I  read  in  the  MS. 
memoirs  of  Louis  Bonaparte  which  he  lent  me  at  Rome  in  1815,  but 
which  I  must  allow  were  almost  illegible  from  the  badness  of  the 
writing,  all  that  is  here  related  in  the  text. 

*  It  is  said,  probably  with  as  little  foundation,  that  when  Marshal 
Soult  wished  to  be  proclaimed  King  of  Portugal,  his  name  of  Nicholas 
was  urged  as  an  unsurmountable  objection.  I  do  not  vouch  for  his 
having  ever  entertained  such  a  wish,  am  satisfied  no  such  objection 
defeated  it,  and  believe  his  name  to  be  John.  General  Sebastiani  told 
me  in  conversation  a  curious  anecdote  about  this  general,  King 
Joseph,  and  Napoleon.  The  latter,  when  at  Madrid,  signed  a  decree 
annexing  Spain  to  France,  and  Sebastiani  found  King  Joseph,  to  whom 
it  had  been  communicated,  in  despair,  and  actually  in  tears  :  he  earn- 
estly entreated  Sebastiani  to  go  to  his  brother  and  intercede  with  him. 
Napoleon  said  it  was  true  the  decree  had  been  signed,  but  the  news 
from  Salamanca  (where  I  think  the  English  had  advanced  upon  Soult) 
had  induced  the  Emperor  to  revoke  the  decree,  and  to  postpone  his 
brother's  dethronement  for  some  months.  "You  may  tell  him  the 
revocation  of  the  decree  (said  he),  but  not  a  word  of  my  future  inten- 


NAPOLEON  AT  BRIENNE.  137 

ridicule  converted  it,_  when  he  rose  to  celebrity,  into 
Napoleon.  The  printed  exercises  of  the  military  school 
of  Brienne,*  of  the  years  1780,  1781,  1783,  preserved  in 
the  Bibliotheque  at  Paris,  represent  him  as  proficient  in 
history,  algebra,  geography,  and  dancing,  under  the  name 
of  Buona-Parte  de  I'lsle  de  Corse ;  sometimes  d'Ajaccio 
en  Corse.  Many  traits  of  his  aspiring  and  ambitious 
character,  even  in  early  youth,  have  been  related,  and 
Pozzo  di  Borgo  quoted  (1826)  a  conversation  with  him 
when  18  years  of  age,  in  which,  after  inquiring  and  learn- 
ing the  state  of  Italy,  he  exclaimed,  "  Then  I  have  not 
been  deceived,  and  with  two  thousand  soldiers  a  man 
might  make  himself  king  (Principe)  of  that  country." 
The  ascendency  he  acquired  over  his  family  and  com- 
panions, long  before  his  great  talents  had  emerged  from 
obscurity,  were   formerly  described  to  me  by  Cardinal 

tions."  Sebastian!  some  months  afterward  commanded  at  Grenada ; 
and  he  was  sounded  by  a  confidential  agent  of  Joseph's  and  SoulVs  to 
co-operate  in  opening  a  negotiation  for  a  separate  peace  between 
Spain  and  England,  unknown  to  Napoleon  and  the  French  govern- 
ment. So  that  the  Imperial  councils  were  far  from  being  a  scene  of 
harmony  and  union  at  that  period. 

*  These  books  are  as  follows  : 

That  of  1780,  in  which  he  is  twice  mentioned;  printed  at  Troyes^ 
and  unbound. 

That  of  1781,  in  which  he  is  mentioned  three  times ;  printed  by 
Didot  I'aine,  a  Paris,  and  bound. 

That  of  1782,  in  which  he  is  mentioned  three  times;  printed  at 
Troyes,  and  unbound. 

N.B.  They  were  all  three  lent  to  me  in  February,  1826,  from  the 
Bibliotheque  Royale.  His  name  is  uniformly  written  Buona-Parte. 
He  is  once  described  as  di'Ajaccio  en  Corse,  and  twice  de  VIsle  de 
Corse, 


138  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 

Fesch  and  Louis  Bonaparte,  and  have  been  confirmed 
since  by  the  uniform  testimony  of  such  as  knew  him 
during  his  residence  in  Corsica,  or  before  his  acquaint- 
ance with  Barras,  the  Director.  When  at  home  he  was 
extremely  studious,  ardent  in  some  pursuit,  either  literary 
or  scientific,  which  he  communicated  to  no  one.  At  his 
meals,  which  he  devoured  rapidly,  he  was  silent,  and 
apparently  absorbed  in  his  own  thoughts.  Yet  he  was 
generally  consulted  on  all  questions  affecting  the  interests 
of  any  branch  of  his  family,  and  on  all  such  occasions  was 
attentive,  friendly,  decisive,  and  judicious.  He  wrote  at 
a  very  early  period  of  his  hfe  a  History  of  Corsica,  and 
sent  the  manuscript  to  the  Abbe  Raynal  with  a  flourishing 
letter,  soliciting  the  honor  of  his  acquaintance,  and  re- 
questing his  opinion  of  the  work.  The  Abbe  acknowl- 
edged the  letter  and  praised  the  performance,  but  Napo- 
leon never  printed  it.*  Persons  who  have  dined  with  him 
at  taverns  and  coffee-houses  when  it  was  convenient  to 
him  not  to  pay  his  reckoning,  have  assured  me,  that 
though  the  youngest  and  poorest,  he  always  obtained, 
without  exacting  it,  a  sort  of  deference  or  even  submissioi 
from  the  rest  of  the  company.  Though  never  parsimoni-l 
ous,  he  was  at  that  period  of  his  life  extremely  attentive 
to  the  details  of  expense,  the  price  of  provisions,  and  of 
other  necessary  articles,  and  in  short  to  every  branch  of 
domestic  economy.  The  knowledge  thus  early  acquired 
in  such  matters  was  useful  to  him  in  a  more  exalted 
station.  He  cultivated  and  even  made  a  parade  of  his 
information  in  subsequent  periods  of  his  career,  and  thus, 

*  See  Appendix  No.  VI, 


NAPOLEON'S  ATTENTION  TO  DETAILS.  139 

sometimes  detected  and  frequently  prevented  embezzle- 
ment in  the  administration  of  public  accounts.  Nothing 
could  exceed  the  order  and  regularity  with  which  his 
household,  both  as  Consul  and  Emperor,  was  conducted. 
The  great  things  he  accomplished,  and  the  savings  he 
made,  without  even  the  imputation  of  avarice  or  mean- 
ness, with  the  sum  comparatively  inconsiderable  of  15 
millions  of  francs  a  year,  are  marvelous,  and  expose  his 
successors,  and  indeed  all  European  Princes  to  the  re- 
proach of  negligence  or  incapacity.  In  this  branch  of  his 
government,  he  owed  much  to  Duroc.  It  is  said,  that 
they  often  visited  the  markets  of  Paris  (les  halles)  dressed 
in  plain  clothes,  and  early  in  the  morning.  When  any 
great  accounts  were  to  be  submitted  to  the  Emperor, 
Duroc  would  apprise  him  in  secret  of  some  of  the  minute- 
est  details.  By  an  adroit  allusion  to  them,  or  a  careless 
remark  on  the  points  upon  which  he  had  received  such 
recent  and  accurate  information,  Napoleon  contrived  to 
impress  his  audience  with  a  notion  that  the  master's  eye 
was  every  where.  For  instance,  when  the  Tuilleries 
were  furnished,  the  upholsterer's  charges,  though  not  very 
exorbitant,  were  suspected  by  the  Emperor  to  be  higher 
than  the  usual  profit  of  that  trade  would  have  warranted. 
He  suddenly  asked  some  minister  who  was  with  him  how 
much  the  egg  at  the  end  of  the  bell-rope  should  cost? 
"  J'ignore,"  was  the  answer. — "  Eh  bien  !  nous  verrons," 
said  he,  and  then  cut  off  the  ivory  handle,  called  for  a 
valet,  and  bidding  him  dress  himself  in  plain  and  ordinary 
clothes,  and  neither  divulge  his  immediate  commission  or 
general  employment  to  any  living  soul,  directed  him  to 
inquire  the  price  of  such  articles  at  several  shops  in  Paris, 


140  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 

and  to  order  a  dozen  as  for  himself.  They  were  one- 
thu'd  less  dear  than  those  furnished  to  the  palace.  The 
Emperor,  inferring  that  the  same  advantage  had  been 
taken  in  the  other  articles,  struck  a  third  off  the  whole 
charge,  and  directed  the  tradesman  to  be  informed  that  it 
was  done  at  his  express  command,  because  on  inspection 
he  had  himself  discovered  the  charges  to  be  by  one-third 
too  exorbitant.  When  afterward,  in  the  height  of  his 
glory,  he  visited  Caen  with  the  Empress  Maria  Louisa 
and  a  train  of  crowned  heads  and  princes,  his  old  friend 
M.  Mechin,  the  Prefect,  aware  of  his  taste  for  detail, 
waited  upon  him  with  five  statistical  tables  of  the  expendi- 
ture, revenue,  prices,  produce,  and  commerce  of  the  de- 
partment. "  C'est  bon,"  said  he,  when  he  received  them 
the  evening  of  his  arrival,  "  vous  et  moi  nous  ferons  bien 
de  I'esprit  sur  tout  cela  demain  au  Conseil."  Accordingly, 
he  astonished  all  the  leading  proprietors  of  the  department 
at  the  meeting  next  day,  by  his  minute  knowledge  of  the 
prices  of  good  and  bad  cider,  and  of  the  produce  and 
other  circumstances  of  the  various  districts  of  the  depart- 
ment. Even  the  Royalist  gentry  were  impressed  with  a 
respect  for  his  person,  which  gratitude  for  the  restitution 
of  their  lands  had  failed  to  inspire,  and  which,  it  must  be 
acknowledged,  the  first  faint  hope  of  vengeance  against 
their  enemies  entirely  obliterated  in  almost  every  member 
of  that  intolerant  faction. 

Other  princes  have  shown  an  equal  fondness  for  minute 
details  with  Napoleon,  but  here  is  the  difference.  The 
use  they  made  of  their  knowledge  was  to  torment  their 
inferiors  and  weary  their  company :  the  purpose  to  which 
Napoleon  applied  it  was  to  confine  the  expenses  of  the 


NAPOLEON  AND  THE  JACOBINS.  141 

State  to  the  objects  and  interests  of  the  community.  I 
return  to  the  earlier  period  of  his  life.  His  compliances 
with  the  ruling  party  of  the  Jacobins  have  been  greatly 
exaggerated.  Some  indecorous  language  and  behavior  in 
the  churches  of  Toulon  or  Marseilles,  after  the  surrender 
of  those  towns  to  the  Republicans,  constitute  the  amount 
of  the  charges  which  can  be  substantiated  against  him  on 
that  score.  From  all  participation  in  their  cruelties  he 
was  entirely  free.  He  did  not  even  at  that  dangerous 
period  conceal  from  his  intimates  his  contempt  for  the 
prevalent  absurdities,  and  his  serious  disapprobation  of  the 
means  by  which  the  system  of  terror  was  so  long  kept  in 
vigor.  The  horrors  of  the  revolution  made  a  deep  im- 
pression on  his  mind.  The  dread  of  their  revival  led  him 
at  subsequent  periods  of  his  life,  not  only  to  treat  the  anti- 
revolutionists  with  improvident  and  dangerous  indulgence, 
but  even  to  assimilate  his  own  government  in  too  many 
particulars  to  the  ancient  order  of  things.  He  was  apt 
to  listen  with  complacency  to  any  reasoning  which  could 
be  devised  to  ground  his  authority  on  a  basis  the  very 
reverse  of  that  on  which  he  well  knew  it  really,  or  at  least 
more  naturally  rested.  His  favor  with  Barras  (which  I 
believe  is  correctly  stated  by  all  his  biographers  to  have 
been  the  chief  cause  of  his  employment  on  the  13th  and 
14th  of  Vendemiaire  (4th  and  5th  October,  1795),  and 
his  subsequent  appointment  to  the  command  of  the  army 
of  Italy)  was  the  fair  fruits  of  his  distinguished  services 
at  Toulon,  and  of  the  genius  and  energy  which,  on  in- 
timate acquaintance  with  him,  were  discernible  in  his 
conversation  and  character.  On  his  first  nomination  to 
the  army  of  Italy,  the  Directory  is  said  to  have  been 


142  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 


,  unable  or  unwilling  to  supply  hina  with  the  money  neces- 
sary for  the  journey  of  himself  and  his  aid-de-camps  to 
the  spot,  and  their  suitable  appearance  at  the  head-quar- 
ters of  a  considerable  force.  In  this  emergency,  after 
collecting  all  that  his  resources,  the  contribution  of  his 
friends,  and  his  credit  could  muster,  he  is  reported  to 
have  applied  to  Junot,  a  young  officer  whom  he  knew 
to  be  in  the  habit  of  frequenting  the  gaming  tables,  and 
confiding  to  him  all  the  money  he  had  been  able  to  raise, 
in  itself  no  great  sum,*  to  have  directed  him  either  to 
lose  the  whole  or  to  increase  it  to  a  considerable  amount 
before  the  morning,  as  on  his  success  that  night  at  play 
depended  the  possibility  of  his  taking  the  command  of 
the  army  and  appointing  Junot  his  aid-de-camp.  Junot, 
after  succeeding  beyond  his  expectations  in  winning  to 
an  amount  in  his  judgment  equal  to  the  exigencies  of  his 
employer,  hastened  to  inform  General  Bonaparte,  but 
he  was  not  satisfied,  and  resolving  to  try  his  fortune  to 
the  utmost,  bade  his  friend  return,  risk  all  that  he  had 
gained,  and  not  quit  the  table  till  he  had  lost  the  last 
penny,  or  doubled  the  sum  he  had  brought  back  to  him. 
In  this  also,  after  some  fluctuation,  the  chances  favored 
him,  and  Napoleon  set  out  to  his  head-quarters  furnished 
with  sufficient  to  take  upon  him  the  command  with  no 
little  personal  splendor  and  eclat.f     The  above  anecdote 

*  Junot,  say  others,  sold  his  silver-hilted  sword,  and  added  the  pro- 
duce to  the  stake. 

f  I  have  repeated  it  as,  after  refreshing  my  memory  by  references 
to  others  who  heard  it  at  the  same  time,  I  believe  it  to  have  been 
told  to  me.    I  do  not  venture  to  mention  the  sums,  but  what  was  ulti 
mately  won,  seems  to  me  to  have  been  300,000  francs.     The  story, 


I 


NAPOLEON  AND  HOCHE.  J43 

was  first  related  to  me  by  the  Chevalier  Serra,  Minister 
of  the  Ligurian  Republic  at  Madrid,  a  man  of  veracity, 
learning,  and  discernment ;  w^ho  was  intimately  acquaint- 
ed with  Napoleon  during  his  Italian  campaigns.  By  the 
same  authority  I  was  assured  that  at  that  early  period 
of  his  career,  though  he  acknowledged  the  military 
prowess  of  the  French,  he  spoke  of  them  to  Salicetti 
and  other  Italians  as  foreigners,  undervalued  their  polit- 
ical talents,  and  treated  them  as  a  nation  devoid  of 
public  principle  and  moral  courage.  It  is  to  be  remarked 
that  this  language  was  held  to  Italians,  who  he  well  knew 
would  be  pleased  and  flattered  by  the  expression  of  opi- 
nions congenial  with  their  own,  and  from  which  they 
might  infer  the  superiority  of  their  own  countrymen  over 
those  who  in  appearance  had  subdued  them.  He  had 
married  Josephine,  the  widow  of  Viscount  Beauharnois 
before  he  took  the  command  of  the  army  of  Italy.  Dur- 
ing his  love  for  that  lady.  General  Hoche  was  there,  as 
elsewhere,  his  rival.  Hoche  had  the  advantage  of  per- 
son, higher  rank,  and  a  longer  established  reputation 
in  the  army.  Josephine  with  good  manners,  some  beauty, 
and  more  sweetness  of  disposition,  had  some  tincture 
of  romance  and  superstition  in  her  character.  Half  in 
joke,  and  half  in  earnest,  she  was  a  great  promoter  of 
that  spurious  offspring  of  astrology  and  witchcraft  which 
consists  in  telling  fortunes  by  games  of  cards,  caballistic 

with  some  variation  of  circumstances,  has  often  been  recounted  to  me, 
or  alluded  to  in  conversation  with  well-informed  Frenchmen.  Serra 
was  afterward  employed  in  a  diplomatic  character  by  Napoleon  at 
Dresden.  He  wrote  and  printed  an  account  of  that  great  prince's 
German  and  Polish  campaigns  in  Latin,  and  died  at  Dresden  in  1813. 


144  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 

**""   "        ■■■■'■■" — '  ■  ■•■  — .        ■■■      — ■      .      ■■       ■  -..I  »  «  ■■■■■■■  ■,  II  .Mii,.1g 

numbers,  lotteries,  palmistry,  and  other  devices,  which 
those  who  encourage  them  are  compelled  to  laugh  at 
and  term  mere  pastime,  but  which  those  who  laugh  at 
them  and  find  diversion  in  them  are  apt  in  some  little 
measure  to  consider,  and  even  to  credit.  Napoleon,  to 
amuse  his  mistress  and  torment  his  rival,  affected  to  be 
an  adept  in  palmistry.  He  told  the  fortunes  of  most  of 
the  company  in  a  way  which,  never  having  been  men- 
tioned since,  turned  out  probably  ill-founded  conjecture, 
but  on  inspecting  the  hand  of  Hoche  he  predicted  that 
his  rival  would  deprive  him  of  his  mistress,  and  that  he 
would  die  in  his  bed.  As  both  these  events  occurred, 
the  credulous  and  malignant  enemies  of  Napoleon  did  not 
fail  to  impute  the  second  as  well  as  the  first  to  his  machi- 
nations. The  premature  death  of  the  young  and  brilliant 
General  Hoche  in  Germany  was  gravely  accounted  for 
by  poison  administered  to  him  by  his  successful  rival  in 
Italy,  who  forsooth,  to  avoid  suspicion  and  detection,  had 
in  a  moment  of  gayety  unnecessarily  predicted  the  death 
he  was  secretly  and  wickedly  contriving  ! 

Among  the  various  fortunes  foretold  to  Josephine  before 
her  second  marriage,  she  often  mentioned  that  of  a  gipsy, 
who  had  informed  her  that  "she  would  be  greater  than  a 
queen,  and  yet  die  in  a  hospital."  The  latter  part  of  that 
silly  prophecy,  say  the  credulous,  has  been  verified  to  the 
letter,  though  not  in  the  spirit,  by  the  name  of  MalmaisoUf 
the  place  of  her  decease,  which  in  its  original  meaning, 
and  probably  destination,  was  a  receptacle  for  the  sick.  I 
must  acknowledge  that  I  heard  the  prediction  very  cur^ 
rently  reported  as  early  as  1802,  and,  therefore,  before  her 
death  or  elevation  to  the  title  of  Empress,  when  it  might 


NAPOLEON  AND  JOSEPHINE.  145 


have  been  matter  of  dispute  whether,  as  wife  of  the  First 
Consul,  she  had  literally  fulfilled  even  the  first  clause  of 
the  oracle.  His  marriage  was  the  work  of  Barras,  and 
contracted  about  the  time  of  his  promotion.  Napoleon's 
love  for  Josephine  was  ardent  and  sincere ;  it  continued 
for  some  time,  and  his  esteem  and  good-will  toward  her 
never  ceased.  Upon  first  assuming  the  title  of  Emperor, 
he  began,  however,  to  listen  to  suggestions,  and,  perhaps, 
to  harbor  the  design  of  another  marriage,  calculated  to  in- 
sure his  admittance  into  the  college  of  legitimate  sover- 
eigns, and  better  suited  to  the  foundation  of  an  hereditary 
empire,  by  afibrding  some  prospect  of  issue.  A  lady  who 
knew  Josephine  w^ell,  but  who,  though  correct  in  her  re- 
collections and  accurate  in  her  language,  is  apt  somewhat 
to  dramatize  her  narratives,  assured  me  that,  on  first  as- 
suming his  new  title,  the  Emperor  told  Madame  Bonaparte 
in  her  cabinet  that  his  family,  his  ministers,  his  council, 
enfin  tout  le  monde,  had  represented  to  him  the  necessity 
of  a  divorce  and  a  new  marriage  ;  and  that  while  she  was 
leaning  on  her  arm,  with  tears  in  her  eyes,  he  walked 
backward  and  forward  in  a  hurried  and  agitated  manner, 
frequently  repeating,  "  Qu'en  dis-tu  done?  Cela  sera-t-il? 
Qu'en  dis-tu?"  She  replied,  "Que  veux-tu  que  j'en  dise? 
Si  tes  freres,  tes  ministres,  tout  le  monde  est  contre  moi,  et 
il  n'y  a  que  toi  pour  me  defendre  !"  "  Tu  n'as  que  moi 
pour  te  defendre  1"  exclaimed  he  with  emotion,  "  Eh  bien, 
tu  I'emporteras."  Josephine,  in  recounting  the  story,  ad- 
ded that  he  never  could  withstand  tears,  and  least  of  all 
the  tears  of  a  woman.  According  to  her,  whenever  he 
thought  it  necessary  to  be  firm,  he  assumed  a  short,  harsh, 
and  decisive  tone,  for  the  purpose  of  preventing  those  ap- 

G 


146  FOREIGN  REMirsISCEXCES, 

peals  which  he  was  unable  directly  to  resist.  Others  hare 
concurred  in  assuring  me  that  the  unmannerly  speeches 
in  which  he  too  often  indulged  were  the  result  of  system 
rather  than  temper,  and  adopted  to  disconcert  designs  and 
elude  importunity  ;  that  his  so  much  dreaded  bursts  of  pas- 
sion were  the  cloak  of  an  easy  ar;d  good-humored,  not  the 
ebullitions  of  a  hasty  or  ungovernable  disposition.  Th?s 
may  be  so ;  but  many  will  think  he  acted  his  part  too  well, 
and  habit  too  often  becomes  second  nature,     • 

On  one  melancholy  occasion  he  certainly  exhibited  great 
obduracy.  Whatever  were  the  motives,  whoever  were 
the  advisers  of  the  arrest  and  execution  of  the  Duke  of 
Enghien,  Napoleon  was  besieged  both  in  public  and  pri- 
vate by  the  tears  of  his  wife,  the  intercession  of  his  family, 
and  the  remonstrances  of  more  than  one  public  man,  for 
mercy,  and  in  vain.  The  whole  is  a  mystery ;  those  who 
were  in  the  secret,  and  have  written  on  the  subject,  with- 
out succeeding  in  vindicating  themselves  from  all  suspicion 
of  participation  in  the  guilt,  have  thrown  little  light  on  the 
subject.  One  of  them,  Savary,  had  at  one  time  committed 
to  paper  the  following  explanation  of  the  motives  for 
arresting  the  Duke  of  Enghien.*     Those  intrusted  with  the 

*  The  raaimscript  of  his  memoirs  containing  this  story,  was  offered 
for  sale  to  a  bookseller  in  London  in  1815  or  1816,  by  Savary  himself. 
The  bookseller,  to  form  a  judgment  of  its  value,  confided  it  to  the  pe-  ■ 
rusal  of  Mr.  Allen,  who,  though  he  abstained,  from  a  scruple  of  honor, 
from  copying  a  line,  recollected  the  account  of  this  interesting  and 
painful  transaction.  The  memoir  was  neither  purchased  by  the  book- 
seller nor  printed,  and  in  the  pamphlet  afterward  published  by  Savary, 
in  Paris,  some  of  the  details  were  repeated  verbatim,  others  were 
altered,  and  others  entirely  suppressed. 


NAPOLEON  AND  THE  DUKE  OF  EXGHIEN.  147 


■  police  had  information  of  the  private  meetings  of  Georges 
Cadoudal  and  his  accomplices  at  Paris..  Their  numbers, 
their  plot,  the  means  they  possessed  of  executing  it,  and 
the  period  destined  for  their  enterprise,  even  much  of  their 
private  conversation,  had  been  detected.  But  in  those 
secret  juntos  there  occasionally  appeared  a  person  whose 
name  and  character  were  never  accurately  ascertained. 
He  was  treated  with  marks  of  unusual  outward  respect, 
and  seemed  to  be  considered  amons:  the  Rovalist  assassins 
to  be  a  personage  of  great  rank  and  importance.  Though 
he  afterward  turned  out  to  have  been  Pichegru,  he  was 
conjectured  by  the  Chief  Consul  and  his  government  to  be 
no  other  than  the  Duke  of  Enghien.  That  Prince  was 
known  to  have  been  recently  hovering  on  the  confines  of 
Germany  and  France,  and  to  have  absented  himself  some- 
what  mysteriously  from  his  usual  residence  in  the  former 
country  for  a  fortnight,  during  which  time  the  appearance 
of  the  distinguished  conspirator  at  Paris  had  occurred. 
The  orders  for  his  seizure  were  accordingly  issued  under 
the  persuasion  that  he  was  the  man.  Supposing  the  story 
to  be  true,  the  motives  for  the  execution  of  that  unfortunate 
Prince,  once  brought  to  Paris,  even  though  the  mistake 
were  cleared  up,  would  be  more  intelligible,  though  perhaps 
not  much  more  excusable  than  a  wanton  outrage  of  neutral 
territory  for  the  purpose  of  seizing  an  innocent  and  inter- 
esting young  man.  Such  a  view  of  the  transaction  would 
be  consistent  with  a  speech  imputed  by  Napoleon,  in  his 
conversation  with  Lord  Elvington,  to  Talleyrand.  "  Le 
vin  est  tire,  il  faut  le  boire."  His  regret,  too,  at  not  having 
seen  the  Duke,  and  the  inference  he  left  to  be  drawn  that, 
had  he  seen  him,  he  must  have  pardoned  hinif  would  tally 


148  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 

well  with  this  explanation  of  the  transaction.*  On  the  other 
hand,  is  it  probable  that  Napoleon,  aware  of  the  reproaches 
to  which  this  incident  of  his  life  had  exposed  him,  and  not 
averse  to  hear  or  even  to  discuss  the  sensation  it  had  pro- 
duced, should  never,  either  at  Elba,  or  at  Paris  during  the 
100  days,  on  the  voyage,  or  at  St.  Helena,  have  urged  such 
circumstances  in  palliation  of  the  judicial  murder,  which, 
unless  some  false  impression  on  his  mind  at  the  time  can  be 
proved,  or  some  unknown  provocation  be  adduced,  he  must 
be  allowed  to  have  perpetrated?  A  crime  is  not  to  be 
palliated,  much  less  to  be  justified  by  its  consequences. 
What  though  the  terror  inspired  by  the  death  of  a  Bourbon 
Prince  enabled  Napoleon  to  spare  many  conspirators  of 
that  party,  who  had  forfeited  their  lives  to  the  law — what 
though  he  availed  himself  largely  of  that  power,  exhibiting 
in  the  case  of  the  Polignacs,  the  Marquis  de  Riviere,  and 
many  others,  a  clemency  almost  unexampled  in  any  govern- 
ment similarly  circumstanced,  still  the  unprovoked  sacrifice 
of  a  man  whom  position  and  birth  alone  made  an  enemy, 
and  against  whom  no  crime  was  even  alleged,  will  and 
ought  to  remain  a  blot  upon  his  memory.  Future  disclo- 
sures may  soften  the  dye,  but  none  that  I  can  conjecture 
can  entirely  efface  the  stain  which  that  guilt  has  left  on 
his  government.  It  is  just  to  add  that  having  read  the 
official  orders  and  correspondence  relating  to  the  seizure 

*  Our  Edward  I.  refused  an  interview  with  David,  Prince  of  Wales, 
when  resolved  to  execute  him.  James  II.  saw  Monmouth,  and  had 
the  heart  to  refuse  a  pardon.  I  believe  Napoleon,  like  Edward, 
thought  an  interview  and  pardon  almost  synonymous,  and  condemna- 
tion of  an  equal  with  whom  he  had  recently  conversed  not  only 
severity  but  brutality. 


I 


NAPOLEON  AND  THE  DUKE  OF  ENGHIEN.  149 

of  the  Duke  of  Enghien,  I  am  satisfied  that  Caullncourt, 
Duke  of  Vicence,  had  no  participation  in  the  guilt,  and 
very  remotely  any,  if  indeed  he  had  any,  in  the  measures 
for  seizing  that  unfortunate  Prince.  The  orders  were 
given  from  Paris  through  the  regular  channels.  Berthier 
w^rote  and  forwarded  the  military  instructions ;  Talley- 
rand, as  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  the  justification  of 
that  breach  of  neutrality.  General  Ordener,  not  General 
Caulincourt,  received  those  orders  ;  an  inferior  officer  of 
the  name  of  Charlotte,  under  the  immediate  orders  of  the 
same  General  Ordener,  and  not  of  General  Caulincourt, 
executed  them.  I  presume  that,  had  Caulincourt,  or  any 
other  general  on  service,  received  such  orders,  he  would 
have  executed  them  without  scruple.  The  civil,  and  not 
the  military  authorities,  if  the  latter  act  under  orders, 
are,  both  in  law  and  sense,  alone  responsible  for  such  in- 
fraction of  neutrality.  But,  in  this  instance.  General  Caul- 
incourt was  not  the  military  authority  who  received  the 
orders  or  executed  them.  It  is  equally  clear  from  un- 
deniable documents,  that  he  was  at  Nancy,  a  distance  too 
great  from  Paris  to  communicate  with  the  government  in 
the  interval  between  the  arrival  of  the  Duke  of  Enghien 
and  his  execution.  He  could,  therefore,  have  had  no  in- 
fluence on  the  fate  of  the  Prince.  His  friends  assert  that 
he  would  have  exerted  any  he  had  in  his  favor ;  and 
they  add,  that  on  his  arrival  at  Paris,  two  days  afterward, 
he  fainted  away  at  the  recital  of  his  death  ;  a  degree  of 
emotion,  it  must  be  acknowledged,  somewhat  unaccount- 
able in  a  person  so  utterly  unconnected  with  the  victim, 
and  so  very  remotely  and  innocently,  if  at  all,  implicated 
in  any  part  of  the  transaction.      His  solicitation  to  be 


150  FOREIGN  RExMINISCENCES. 

employed  in  it,  his  journey  to  Strasburgh  for  that  purpose, 
his  presence  at  the  court-martial  and  execution,  together 
with  many  imputations  on  his  character,  are  manifestly 
the  invention  of  libelists.  His  relations  assure  me  that  the 
dependence  of  his  father  or  family  on  the  late  Prince  of 
Conde,  so  confidently  reported,  and  so  vehemently  urged 
in  aggravation  of  his  supposed  guilt,  is  equally  void  of 
foundation.  Napoleon,  in  the  100  days,  when  apprised 
on  inquiry  that  the  grounds  of  the  enmity  felt  toward 
Caulincourt  by  the  Bourbon  princes  was  his  supposed 
participation  in  the  arrest  and  execution  of  their  relation, 
observed  to  Count  Mole — "  Mais  il  n'a  rien  eu  a  y  faire, 
pas  plus  que  vous." 

On  the  first  breaking  out  of  the  war  in  1803,  Napoleon 
had  some  design  of  changing  his  title  and  assuming  the 
crown.  He  had  indeed  been  inclined  to  do  so  before, 
but  had  been  prevented  by  his  generals,  and  especially  by 
Lannes.*'  He  in  truth  always  treated  the  latter  with 
great  forbearance  and  affection,  allowed  him  to  cross 
his  designs,  and  even  overlooked  his  deviations  from  im- 
portant duties.  This  conduct  arose  from  a  grateful  rec- 
ollection of  his  early  services,  and  from  an  unvarying, 
perhaps  a  systematic  predilection  for  all  his  first  military 
comrades  and  connections.  The  epithets  of  ungrateful 
and  vindictive  seem  necessary  appendages  to  the  titles 
of  usurper  and  tyrant,  which  were  so  liberally  conferred 
on  our  formidable  enemy  by  the  English.     Yet  successful 

*  Afterward  Duke  of  Monte  Bello,  and  always  a  generous,  frank, 
gallant,  and  fearless  soldier,  with  strong  republican  predilections,  and 
liable  to  no  reproaches,  but  such  as  a  disregard  of  decorum  and  in- 
delicacy on  subjects  relating  to  public  money  exposed  him  to. 


NAPOLEON  AND  GALLOIS.  151 


ambition   has  rarely  been  so  free  from  the  reproach  of 
ingratitude  or  revenge  as  in  the  instance  of  Napoleon. 

He  made  the  treaty  of  Amiens  as  an  experiment,  and 
the  scurrility  of  our  newspapers,  the  coldness,  jealousy, 
and  obvious  estrangement  of  our  cabinet,  convinced  him 
that  the  experiment  had  failed.  He  employed  one  of  the 
best  pens  in  France,  M.  Galiois,  to  draw  up  the  report 
on  the  peace  of  Amiens,  in  which  the  articles  were  justi- 
fied, and  the  advantages  of  the  peace  earnestly  impressed 
on  the  legislature.  When  Lord  Whitworth  left  Paris 
on  the  rupture.  Napoleon  sent  again  for  Galiois  and 
exclaimed,  "  Eh  bien !  I'Angleterre  veut  absolument  la 
guerre,  Elle  la  vent."  He  then  laid  before  M.  Galiois 
the  whole  negotiation,  and  pressed  him  to  give  his  opin- 
ion. "  England,"  said  Galiois,  "  might  have  done  more  to 
preserve  peace,  but  France  has  not  done  all  she  might  to 
obtain  it,"  To  that  remark,  the  Chief  Consul  answered 
that  he  had  already  dispatched  another  messenger  to 
catch  Lord  Whitworth,  and  "  de  faire  cette  derniere  tenta- 
tive.* But  after  vaunting  and  proving  his  efforts  for 
peace,  and  after  acknowledging  that  peace,  or  at  least  the 
utmost  endeavors  to  preserve  it  had  been  necessary  for 
France,  he  added  with  emphasis  but  with  gayety :  "  Mais 
enfin,  je  vous  dis,  I'Angleterre  veut  la  guerre.  Elle  I'aura, 
at  quant  a  moi,  j'en  suis  ravi.f     Pressed  to  explain  a  feel- 

*  This  was  to  leave  England  in  possession  of  Malta,  but  to  stipulate 
tho-t  she  should  employ  her  mediation  with  the  King  of  Sicily  for  the 
cession  of  Tarento,  Otranto,  and  one  other  port  to  France.  A  Genevan, 
n-amed  Hubert,  was  the  bearer  of  this  ultimatum.     It  was  rejected. 

f  Tiie  precise  sentiment  expressed  in  other  language  by  Mr.  Pitt 
m  his  speech  on  the  rupture  of  the  negotiations  at  Lisle.  The  coin 
cidence  is  curious.  -,    . 


152  FOliEIGN  REMINISCENCES. 


ing  apparently  so  inconsistent  with  his  professions,  he  en- 
tered into  a  long,  curious,  and  luminous  exposition  of  his 
policy.  "  If,"  said  he,  "  the  Powers  of  Europe  had  been 
willing  to  let  France  and  her  new  institutions  subside  into 
a  tranquil  and  free  government,  if  they  could  have  borne  de 
honne  foi  to  cultivate  the  relations  of  amity  with  her  and 
her  dependencies  in  Holland  and  Italy,  she  might  have 
cherished  the  arts  of  p^ace,  improved  her  internal  condi- 
tion, and  sat  down  con-jnted  with  the  prospects  of  liberty 
and  prosperity  before  h^j* ;  but  experience  of  peace  for  one 
year  with  England,  and  for  more  with  the  other  powers, 
has  confirmed  my  apprehensions  and  proved  it  to  be  hope- 
Jess.  They  never  m^^^xnt  to  leave  France  unmolested. 
But  France  who  woulc{  be  hereafter  unequal,  is  just  now 
fully  equal  to  contend  with  them  all  to  advantage.^ 
"  How  so,"  said  M.  (^allois ;  "  will  not  some  years  of 
peace  add  to  the  resources  of  France  ?  Will  not  the  bene- 
ficial effects  of  those  changes,  of  which  we  have  hitherto 
perceived  little  but  the  shock,  be  gradually  sensible  in 
the  increasing  riches  and  power  of  this  great  people?'* 
"Granted,"  replied  Bonaparte,  "but  riches  and  prosperity, 
for  the  purposes  I  a.ni  contemplating,  may  not  be  alto- 
gether the  instruments  best  adapted  to  the  end :  d'ailleurs, 
I'armee !  les  generaux !"  He  described  the  latter  at  that 
moment,  flushed  with  success,  inured  to  fatigue,  with  for- 
tunes half  made,  in  iill  the  vigor  of  life,  and  ardor  of  aspir- 
ing ambition.  A  few  years*  repose,  during  which  they 
must  be  courted  and  enriched  by  the  government,  would 
damp  their  ardor  and  impair  their  capacity  for  war,  and 
yet  leave  them,  their  descendants,  representatives,  or 
favorites,  with  pretensions  to  influence  and  command, 
difficult  and  perhaps  unjust  to  elude.     In  such  a  state,  the 


NAPOLEON'S  DIVORCE.  153 

country  would  be  unequal  to  the  sort  of  contest  he  was 
then  contemplating ;  for  the  great  powers  of  the  Conti- 
nent must  not  merely  be  humbled — they  must  be  broken, 
shattered,  and  dismembered.  In  their  present  condition, 
they  had  the  will,  and  they  would,  after  a  short  peace, 
have  the  power  to  combine  to  wrest  from  France  the 
fruits  of  her  victories,  and,  possibly,  to  blast  all  her  pros- 
pects by  a  counter-revolution. 

Napoleon  then  developed  his  whole  system  at  great 
length  and  in  detail.  To  Gallois  it  seemed  vast  and  well 
combined — his  views  comprehensive,  if  not  just,  his  argu- 
ment ingenious  and  striking,  and  his  knowledge  almost 
miraculous.  He  pursued  the  system  he  then  described 
with  little  variation,  till  his  marriage  with  the  Archduchess 
of  Austria. 

That  connection  (which,  in  my  humble  opinion,  degrad- 
ed him,  not  her)  altered  his  designs  both  at  home  and 
abroad,  tempted  him  to  assimilate  his  government  more 
and  more  to  other  monarchies,  and  deluded  him  with  the 
hope  that  the  princes  of  Europe  might,  in  consideration 
of  his  foreign  alliances  and  domestic  authority,  overlook 
the  faults  of  his  escutcheon,  and  be  reconciled,  in  the 
form  of  an  hereditary  monarchy,  to  a  title  derived  from 
the  people.  The  Empress  Josephine  very  naturally  saw, 
or  affected  to  see,  that  policy  in  an  opposite  light.  In 
addition  to  her  tears  and  reproaches,  she  endeavored 
to  deter  him  from  his  resolution  by  predicting  that  his 
good  fortune  would  abandon  him  when  he  abandoned 
her ;  for  with  their  connection,  she  artfully  or  super- 
stitiously  had  always  maintained  that  it  was  mysteriously 
interwoven.    When  he  first  conceived  the  design  is  ver> 

G* 


154  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 

difficult  to  ascertain,  especially  as  all  his  designs  were 
the  offspring  of  his  own  inventive  mind,  and  seldom,  if 
ever,  suggested  to  him  by  others.  Talleyrand  told  me 
that  the  Council,  and  he  among  them,  were  strangely 
embarrassed  by  the  abruptness  of  the  proposal.  They 
were  sitting  round  the  table,  discussing  official  matters, 
when  the  Emperor  suddenly  cut  them  short  and  said  there 
were  three  points  on  which  they  should  deliberate  im- 
mediately, and  decide  without  any  unnecessary  loss  of 
time:  1st.  Whether  it  was  essential  to  the  interests  of 
the  state  that  he  should  divorce  Josephine  for  the  purpose 
of  insuring  succession ;  2d.  Whether,  on  so  doing,  he 
should  marry  a  princess  allied  to  some  ancient  dynasty 
in  Europe ;  3dly.  Whether  a  Russian  or  an  Austrian  would 
be  the  most  eligible  match.  To  courtiers  the  question 
was  perplexing.  Talleyrand,  in  recounting  it  to  me, 
showed,  by  his  countenance,  the  impression  it  had  made 
on  him  at  the  time.  He  was  not  sorry  that  Cambaceres 
had  the  precedence  of  him  and  was  to  speak  first.  By 
his  own  acknowledgment  he  evaded  any  direct  answer, 
and  suggested  that  the  inclinations  of  the  Empress  Jose- 
phine to  lend  herself  to  such  a  measure,  and  the  means 
of  accomplishing  it  with  or  without  her  consent,  should 
be  duly  weighed  before  it  was  possible  to  give  any  answer 
to  the  first,  much  more  to  the  other  two  questions.  But 
although  Talleyrand  had  not  been  sounded,  others  of  the 
Council  possibly  had  been ;  more  than  one  courtier  had 
discovered  that  such  topics  might  be  canvassed  in  con- 
versation before  and  even  with  Napoleon,  without  scruple 
or  danger.  One  strange  and  obscure  man  of  the  name 
of  Nisas  pretended  that  Josephine  herself  would  feel  the 


NAPOLEON  AND  MARIA  LOUISA.  155 


propriety  of  some  such  step,  and  when  reproached  by 
her  for  giving  such  advice  to  the  Emperor,  openly  avow- 
ed it,  saying,  that  if  she  were  a  good  Frenchwoman  she 
would  not  only  submit  and  contribute  to  the  divorce, 
but  actually  urge  her  husband  to  accomplish  it.  It  is 
difficult  to  believe  that  any  man,  however  wild,  would 
have  ventured  to  hold  such  language  to  the  Empress 
Josephine,  unless  he  had  received  a  hint  to  do  so  from 
Napoleon.  The  Bonaparte  family,  either  at  the  sugges- 
tion of  the  Emperor  himself,  or  from  jealousy  of  the 
Beauharnois  (a  motive  which  often  swayed  their  con- 
duct), were  active  in  promoting  the  design,  and  main- 
taining the  propriety,  justice,  and  necessity  of  it.  Tal- 
leyrand assured  me  positively,  that  neither  the  Emperor 
Alexander  nor  the  Emperor  Francis  showed  the  slightest 
repugnance  to  the  alliance.  The  Empress-mother  and 
the  Grand  Duchess  herself  were  alone  averse  to  it  in 
Russia.  Austria  in  a  manner  solicited  the  honor,  and 
one  Dumoutier  (afterward  an  ultra-courtier  and  minister 
under  the  Bourbons)  was  authorized  to  convey  to  Na- 
poleon* that  his  offer  would  not  be  unacceptable  to  the 
court  of  Vienna.  Both  those  Imperial  cabinets  by  secret 
communications  at  the  time,  and  by  subsequent  repre- 
sentations, contrived  to  deceive  (no  very  hard  task,  I  pre- 
sume) Lord  Liverpool  and  his  colleagues,  for  his  Lord- 
ship assured  me  that  as  to  the  Archduchess, 

"  Ne'er  was  woman  in  that  humor  woo'd, 
And  ne'er  was  woman  in  that  humor  won  ;'* 


*  Or  rather  to  Narbonne,  through  whom  it  was  communicated  to 
Napoleon. 


156  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 


that  it  was  an  assault  rather  than  a  courtship,  and  thf^t 
if  the  lady  was  somewhat  less  averse  to  the  match  than 
those  about  her,  her  father  and  family  bewailed  it  as  a 
signal  misfortune,  and  that  as  to  the  Russian  court,*  it 
would  never  have  submitted  to  the  indignity.  Napoleoia 
seemed  actually  in  love  with  Maria  Louisa  for  the  first 
year ;  he  always  treated  her  well,  but  she  was  not  of  a 
character  to  inspire  much  confidence,  or  of  an  under- 
standing to  afford  much  resource.  She  grew,  latterly, 
more  tired  of  the  constraint  of  his  court,  and  he  was  more 
reserved  and  ceremonious,  possibly  from  suspicions  of 
the  designs  or  resentment  at  the  perfidy  of  the  court  of 
Vienna. 

How  far  the  previous  elevation  of  Napoleon  at  various 
prominent  epochs  of  his  eventful  career  was  the  result 
of  address  and  decision  at  fortunate  and  critical  periods, 
or  the  gradual  produce  and  natural  fruit  of  a  well-matured 
foresight  and  industry,  it  will  be  the  province  of  the  future 
biographer  and  historian  to  conjecture.  That  at  the  peace 
of  Campo-Formio  he  was  aware  of  the  precarious  char- 
acter of  the  government  he  then  served,  or  rather  dis- 
obeyed, is  clear,  from  remarks  he  made  to  the  Austrians, 
with  whom  he  negotiated.  They  offered  him  a  retreat, 
nay,  a  small  principality,  in  Germany. f  He  declined  it ; 
but  in  alleging  his  reasons  for  so  doing,  admitted  the 
instability  of  the  Directory,  and  unsatisfactory  state  of 

*  Perhaps  as  far  as  the  Empress-mother  and  the  Grand  Duchess 
of  Oldenburgh  (afterward  Princess  of  Wurtemberg)  were  concerned, 
this  may  be  true ;  but  it  was  not  true  of  Alexander  or  his  ministers. 

t  I  had  this  fact  from  Murveldt,  who  negotiated  that  treaty  with 
him. 


NAPOLEON  AND  THE  DIRECTORY.  !5T 


France.  Indeed,  unless  convinced  of  the  weakness  of  the 
Directory,  he  would  hardly  have  ventured  to  disobey 
their  instructions  by  signing  that  peace.  On  his  return 
to  Paris,  he  studied  the  individuals  who  composed  the 
Directory  and  administration.  He  exposed  their  foibles 
with  infinite  wit,  detected  their  defects,  and  censured 
their  measures  with  wonderful  sagacity,  and  little  reserve. 
The  society  of  Paris,  which  had  hitherto  contemplated 
him  only  as  a  successful  general,  perceived  that  his  dis- 
cernment of  character,  his  quickness  of  perception,  and 
his  comprehensive  views  of  public  affairs,  qualified  him 
for  political  command.  "  Ceci  ne  pent  durer,"  said  he ; 
"  ces  directeurs  ne  s^avent  rien  faire  pour  Vimagination 
de  la  nation;"  an  expression  which  illustrates  not  only 
his  contempt  of  the  government  then  established,  but  the 
general  view  of  French  character  on  which  he  founded 
much  of  his  subsequent  policy.  His  language  was  so 
indiscreet,  that  the  Directory  had  thoughts  of  arresting 
him.  Some  say  they  applied  to  Fouche  for  that  purpose,* 
and  that  that  wily  and  profligate  man  answered;  "Ce 
n'est  pas  Ih  un  homme  a  arreter ;  encore  ne  suis-je  pas 
I'homme  qui  I'arretera."  Whatever  be  the  truth  of  that 
anecdote,  the  jealousy  of  the  Directory  did  not  escape  the 
vigilance  of  Napoleon.  He  perceived  with  some  uneasi- 
ness that  his  brilliant  victories,  his  no  less  brilliant  peace, 
and  his  popularity  in  the  circles  of  Paris  were  insufficient 
to  insure  him  that  ascendency  in  the  army  and  the  govern- 
ment to  which  he  aspired,  and  that  a  disclosure  of  his 
designs  might  expose  him  to  danger,  notwithstanding  all 

*  Query.     "Was  Fouche  Minister  of  Police  before  Egypt?     [He 
was  appointed  July  31st,  1799.] 


15S  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 

his  services  and  splendid  qualities.  From  these  con- 
siderations, though  he  had  granted  peace  to  Austria  and 
to  Rome,  he  became  averse  to  any  general  pacification, 
and  ardent  for  employment  either  in  the  invasion  of  En- 
gland or  some  other  great  undertaking.  In  the  mean  while, 
he  paid  assiduous  court  to  the  men  of  science  and  litera- 
ture, attended  the  Institute  constantly,  affected  to  consult 
the  members  on  matters  connected  with  Government, 
and  to  advise  or  converse  with  them  on  those  relating 
to  science.  All  those  circumstances  contributed  to  the 
Egyptian  expedition.  It  was  devised  partly  to  get  rid 
of  him,  partly  to  gratify  him,  and  partly  to  dazzle  and 
delight  that  portion  of  Parisian  society,  who  through  the 
press  and  the  institutions  for  education  had  considerable 
influence  on  public  opinion.  Napoleon  also  accepted  the 
command  from  mixed  motives,  from  ambition,  from  love 
of  glory,  and  from  a  consciousness  that  his  indiscreet  lan- 
guage had  rendered  his  situation  at  home  somewhat  pre- 
carious. His  good  fortune  in  escaping  our  fleet  under 
the  command  of  Nelson  is  well  known.  His  attention 
to  every  thing  connected  with  navigation  and  the  manage- 
ment of  a  ship  and  a  fleet,  during  the  voyage,  was  remark- 
able. The  army  at  first  landing  was  disconcerted  at  the 
appearance  of  the  country,  the  towns,  villages,  and  people, 
and  the  strange  masks  of  the  women.  The  soldiers  and 
officers  were  yet  more  perplexed  at  the  little  accommoda- 
tion for  conveyance  of  themselves  or  their  baggage  in 
their  ensuing  march,  which  they  were  commanded  to 
undertake  immediately.  The  horses  were  small  and  few, 
the  camels  were  not  numerous,  and  even  the  asses,  of 
which  there  were  abundance,  were  not  fine  animals  of 


-   NAPOLEON  IN  EGYPT.  159 

their  sort,  but  a  weak  and  diminutive  as  well  as  ignomini- 
ous species  of  cavalry.  The  indignation  against  the  men 
of  science,  who  were  supposed  to  be  the  instigators  of  the 
expedition,  was  loud,  and  it  was  at  one  time  apprehended 
that  it  might  lead  to  consequences  very  injurious  to  their 
gafety.  When,  however,  nothing  but  asses  were  allotted 
to  them  for  their  conveyance,  their  forlorn  appearance 
made  them  objects  of  derision  rather  then  anger,  and  by 
affording  food  for  the  pleasantry  of  the  soldiers,  they 
escaped  all  serious  injury  or  insult.  They  and  the  humble 
animals  they  bestrode  soon  became  synonymous  terms. 
"Voila  un  scjavant,"  said  the  soldier  when  he  saw  a 
donkey ;  and  "  voici  la  bete  d'ane"  when  he  described 
a  philosopher.  CafFarelli,  the  one-legged  general  under 
whose  care  they  were  specially  placed,  and  who  pre- 
ceded them  seated  also  on  an  ass,  was  occasionally  greet- 
ed in  the  same  tone:  "Le  voila,"  they  would  say,  "il 
s'en  moque  bien  celui-la;  qu'est  ce  que  cela  lui  fait?  il  a 
un  pied  en  France."  General  Bonaparte  connived  at,  if 
he  did  not  encourage  such  jokes,  glad  to  substitute  them 
for  more  serious  murmurs,  which  he  knew  the  state  of  his 
army  was  but  too  well  calculated  to  excite. 

In  the  first  actions*  the  detachments  of  Mamelukes 
charged  the  infantry  with  the  greatest  confidence.     They 

#  The  particulars  of  the  Egyptian  expedition  which  follow,  though 
of  no  gi'eat  importance,  were  related  to  me  in  so  lively  and  natural  a 
manner  by  General  Bertrand,  on  his  first  return  from  St.  Helena, 
that  I  thought  them  worth  preserving;  and  as  Napoleon  was,  at  all 
periods  of  his  life,  especially  during  his  exile,  particularly  fond  of 
dwelling  on  all  his  adventures  in  Egypt,  there  is  little  doubt,  but  the 
recollection  of  General  Bertrand  had  been  recently  refreshed  at  St. 
Helena  by  conversation  on  that  topic  with  the  Emperor  himself. 


160  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 

were  utterly  astonished  at  finding  themselves  repulsed 
by  a  compact  body  of  men  whom  taken  separately  they 
despised,  not  less  for  their  diminutive  stature,  than  for 
the  wretched  state  of  their  accoutrements.  Murad  Bey 
thought  nothing  but  cowardice  could  have  led  to  the 
discomfiture  of  the  first  troops  he  had  sent  against  the 
invaders.  He  was  near  strangling  the  officer  who  had 
commanded  them  for  flying  before  such  "  Christian  dogs." 
"  As  to  myself,"  said  he,  "  I  will  ride  through  them  and 
sever  their  heads  from  their  bodies  like  water-melons." 
He  did  engage  them,  and  at  the  head  of  a  considerable 
force,  but  with  no  better  success.  He  was  thereupon  yet 
more  amazed  and  indignant.  So  enraged  was  he,  that 
it  was  apprehended  he  would  kill  himself.  When  he 
afterward  heard  that  the  French  commanders,  and  espe- 
cially General  Bonaparte  and  General  Desaix,  were  little 
men,  he  imagined  the  Franch  soldiers  were  fixed  together 
in  a  machine,  and  turned  by  some  mechanical  contrivance 
in  the  centre  of  each  column.  He  could  in  no  other  way 
account  for  Ihe  steadiness  of  the  phalanx  and  the  regu- 
larity of  their  movements.  An  interview  with  General 
Kleber  somewhat  consoled  him,  for  General  Kleber  was 
tall  and  handsome.  Murad  Bey  said,  on  seeing  him,  that 
he  was  glad  to  find  there  were  at  least  some  men  in  the 
army  with  which  he  had  submitted  to  make  a  truce. 
But  whatever  his  impressions  or  those  of  other  Mame- 
lukes or  Egyptians  might  be  on  the  outward  appearance 
of  the  French  generals,  they  soon  discerned  the  supe- 
riority of  Napoleon  in  moral  and  intellectual  qualities. 
Some  grew  to  love,  others  to  fear,  all  to  respect  him.  On 
suppressing  the  insurrection  of  the  Cheiks,  he  executed 


NAPOLEON  IN  EGYPT.  ,      161 

sixty  without  delay,  and  surprised  their  comrades  who 
came  to  intercede  for  them  the  next  morning  with  the 
sad  intelligence  that  they  had  all  perished  over  night. 
He  related  this  story  with  an  indifference  and  even  with 
a  gayety,  to  Mr.  Fozakerby  and  others,  many  years  after- 
ward at  Elba,  which  seemed  very  unfeeling ;  and  though 
he  carelessly  observed  that  he  did  it  to  show  that  sa 
maniere  de  gouverner  ri'etoit  pas  moUe,  he  neglected  to 
relate  the  circumstances  which  accounted  for,  and  in 
some  sort  justified  his  extraordinary  severity  to  what  he 
called  des  abhes  de  ce  pays-la,  nor  did  he  mention  the 
many  acts  of  clemency  and  of  judicious  encouragement 
to  the  same  order  of  people  with  which  he  accompanied 
and  followed  that  rigorous  proceeding.  The  Cheiks  had 
plotted  a  massacre  of  the  French  soldiers  in  Cairo.  They 
had  actually  armed  and  raised  the  people  in  pursuance 
of  that  design.  The  French  were  exasperated  to  the 
highest  degree.  They  had  taken  sixty  Cheiks  flagrante 
delicto,  but  they  were  with  difficulty  restrained  from 
sacking  the  town  and  murdering  such  inhabitants  as  they 
deemed  partisans  of  the  Cheiks.  So  general  in  all  ranks 
was  such  a  disposition,  that  officers  of  high  rank,  with 
Kleber  at  their  head,  remonstrated  loudly  with  Napoleon 
on  his  supineness,  and  urged  him  to  punish  the  natives 
and  extirpate  the  Cheiks.  General  Kleber,  on  finding  the 
chief  Cheik,  the  secret  instigator  and  director  of  the  insur- 
rection, closeted  some  days  afterward  with  General  Bona- 
parte, was  with  difficulty  prevented  from  striking  and 
cutting  him  down  with  his  sabre ;  he  could  not  refrain 
from  insulting  him  with  opprobrious  language  mixed  with 
reproaches  and  menaces.    But  such  was  not  the  policy  of 


162  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 

Bonaparte.  He,  on  the  contrary,  told  the  old  conspirator 
himself  ih  private,  and  the  body  of  Cheiks  who  waited 
upon  him  in  public,  that  he  was  fully  aware  of  their 
machinations,  that  he  had  punished  those  that  were  most 
prominent,  and  was  advised  to  proceed  with  the  same 
severity  toward  those  whose  guilt  (for  so  of  course  he 
called  it)  was  equal  and  as  satisfactorily  proved ;  but  he 
added,  he  was  willing  to  believe  they  had  repented  of 
their  offense,  and  were  aware  of  the  consequences  of 
repeating  it ;  that  as  they  knew  he  did  not  fear  them,  he 
hoped  they  would  see  how  much  it  was  their  mutual  in- 
terest to  be  friends;  that  he  respected  their  moral  quali- 
ties and  their  religion;  that  from  them  alone  he  could 
learn  what  were  the  wants  of  the  people,  and  through 
them  alone  he  could  hope  to  administer  justice  and  redress 
the  grievances  of  the  inhabitants.  Language  so  unlike 
that  of  their  real  masters,  the  Mamelukes,  or  their  pre- 
tended sovereigns,  the  Turks,  did  not  fail  to  have  some 
effect,  especially  as  it  was  followed  up  with  actual  proofs 
of  confidence,  and  a  certain  participation  of  power  in  the 
villages  and  smaller  towns  of  the  country.  Napoleon 
took  pains  to  ingratiate  himself  with  the  Cheiks  and  the 
Copts,  i.e.,  the  mass  of  the  inhabitants,  on  the  following 
principles.  The  Mamelukes,  even  if  propitiated,  could 
never,  under  a  French  government,  be  supplied  or  reno- 
vated. However  useful  their  submission  or  their  assistance 
might  be  at  first,  they  could  give  him  no  permanent  hold 
on  the  country,  and  on  some  nation  or  caste  he  clearly 
foresaw  that  the  French  must  ultimatelv  lean  for  the  main- 
tenance  of  their  empire  in  Egypt.  He,  indeed,  and  the 
French  government  had  been  misled  by  their  agents  into 


NAPOLEON  IN  EG^PT.  .163 

a-  belief  that  the  SubUme  Porte  would  hail  the  rescue  of 
Egypt  from  the  Mamelukes  as  a  favor,  and  might  be  in- 
duced to  invest  their  ancient  allies  the  French,  whether 
Christians  or  not,  with  all  the  authority  that  the  sanction 
of  their  distant  sovereignty  and  of  their  religion  could 
bestow.  But  such  idle  hopes  were  soon  dispelled.  The 
inveterate  nature  of  Turkish  hostility  was  soon  apparent 
to  Bonaparte,  and  he  was  by  no  means  disposed  to  un- 
dervalue their  courage  or  their  resources.  Their  infantry 
was  indeed  easily  dispersed,  and  their  cavalry  far  less 
formidable  than  that  of  the  Mamelukes ;  but  he  was  too 
wise  to  overlook  the  advantages  which  in  a  protracted 
contest  an  enormous  empire,  the  nominal  sovereignty  of 
the  faithful,  and  a  fearless  people  at  its  command,  would 
give  the  Sublime  Porte.  The  only  counterpoise  was  to 
be  found  in  the  opinions  and  attachment  of  the  natives. 
The  former  depended  chiefly  on  the  Cheiks,  and  the  latter 
was  only  to  be  inspired  by  good  treatment  and  just  gov- 
ernment." He  endeavored,  therefore,  to  improve  the  con- 
dition, to  humor  the  superstitions,  and  to  supply  the  wants 
of  the  Copts,  and  he  strove  to  court,  gratify,  and  instruct 
the  Cheiks.  It  is  not  true  that  he  embraced  Islamism, 
but  he  complied  with  many  ceremonies,  salutations,  and 
usages,  and  he  maintained  all  the  observances  exacted  by 
the  Cheiks  from  Frenchmen  as  well  as  from  Copts.  The 
Porte,  the  Vizier,  or  some  Turkish  authority  dispatched 
more  than  one  assassin  to  murder  him ;  but  the  Cheiks, 
won  by  his  measures,  always  gave  him  timely  notice  of 
the  design,  and  sometimes  secretly  and  silently,  but  effec- 
tually assisted  him  in  defeating  it.  In  his  endeavors  to 
better   the   condition  and   improve  the   industry  of  the 


164  FOREIGN  RExMINISCENCES. 

natives,  he  turned  his  men  of  science  to  some  account. 
He  had  been  anxious  on  the  march  to  Cairo  to  provide 
for  their  security,  and  when  there  he  was  not  inattentive 
to  their  comforts.  To  reconcile  them  to  their  hardships 
and  dangers,  and  to  counteract  the  derision  to  which  they 
had  been  exposed,  he  tickled  their  vanity,  by  occasional 
compliments  to  their  courage  as  w^ell  as  their  knowledge 
in  his  bulletins  and  dispatches.  They  were  employed  in 
instructing  the  natives  in  various  arts  of  life,  and  super- 
intending the  introduction  of  various  inventions  and  imple- 
ments, such  as  windmills,  wheelbarrows,  hand-saws,  etc., 
with  which  they  had  hitherto  been  unacquainted.  Napo- 
leon's departure  from  Egypt  was  at  the  time  represented 
as  a  desertion  of  his  army,  but  it  is  now  well  known  that 
he  had  received  a  letter  from  his  government  officially 
authorizing  and  practically  urging  his  return  to  France. 
When  Kleber  had  succeeded  to  the  command,  the  Cheiks 
imagined  that  the  same  good-will  to  them  did  not  prevail 
at  the  head-quarters  of  the  French  army.  They  ceased 
to  watch  over  the  safety  of  the  Commander  with  any 
solicitude.  An  emissary  of  the  Turks  passed  the  frontiers, 
and  traveled  through  the  Egyptian  villages  unmolested. 
He  lurked  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  head-quarters,  and 
having  at  length  succeeded  in  finding  the  general  sepa- 
rated from  his  troops,  stabbed  him  to  the  heart.  Officers* 
who  had  the  best  means  of  forming  a  judgment  have 
assured  me  that  there  was  no  conspiracy  in  the  country, 
but  they  were  of  opinion  that  the  vigilance  of  the  Cheiks 
would  have  protected  General  Bonaparte  from  the  intru- 
sion of  any  such  assassin. 

*  Belliard,  Sebastiani,  Bertrand. 


NArOLEON  AND  THE  REVOLUTION.         1G5 

According  to  the  account  of  Napoleon  himself,  it  was  in 
Egypt  that  he  weaned  his  mind  from  all  those  Republican 
illusions  in  which  his  early  growth  in  fame  had  been 
nursed.  It  is  certain  that  after  his  elevation  to  the  consul- 
ship he  seldom  if  ever  betrayed  any  such  propensities. 
But  those  who  knew  him  early  and  well  have  assured  me 
that  the  scenes  of  the  Revolution  had  estranged  and  even 
disgusted  him  with  Democracy  ;  that  exclusive  of  that 
repugnance  to  all  popular  interference  with  authority, 
which  the  possession  of  power  breeds,  he  conscientiously 
checked  every  tendency  to  revive  in  France,  or  to  pro- 
duce elsewhere,*  any  excesses  of  that  nature,  from  a 
conviction  that  the  evil  created  by  them  is  immediate  and 
certain,  the  ultimate  good  to  be  derived  from  them  uncer- 
tain and  problematical.  He  knew,  indeed,  that  his  glory 
and  power  were  the  offspring  of  the  Revolution.  He  felt, 
perhaps  he  regretted  too  much,  that  the  enemies  of  that 
great  change  hated  "  the  Child"  and  supposed  "  Champion 
of  Jacobinism."  He  was  not  even  without  apprehen- 
sion that  the  prosperity  and  stability  of  his  government, 
whether  called  Consular,  Regal,  or  Imperial,  would  depend 
on  the  prevalence  of  those  principles  on  which  great 
national  changes  are  founded  and  justified.  Yet  he  was 
nevertheless  disposed  to  endanger  some  of  his  personal 
security,  rather  than  foment  a  spirit  which  he  deemed 
incompatible  with  tranquil  government  and  a  due  adminis- 
tration of  justice.  Like  our  Elizabeth,  his  principles  and 
(though  not  to  an  equal  degree)  his  temper,  too,  were  at 
variance  with  his  position.      I  mention  these  things  in 

*  In  Ireland ;  in  Poland ;  in  Spain. 


166  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 

honor  of  truth,  not  of  Napoleon.  The  partisans  of  author- 
ity, of  pomp,  and  perhaps  of  superstition *in  government, 
have  a  right  to  the  sanction  of  this  great  man's  opinion, 
though  his  endeavors  to  purchase  their  assistance  were 
only  successful  while  he  stood  in  no  need  of  it.  Much, 
however,  of  his  conduct  toward  Royalists  and  Repub- 
licans, Emigrants  and  Jacobins,  especially  during  his  Con- 
sulship, sprang  from  a  laudable  desire  of  healing  the 
wounds  of  the  Revolution,  and  from  a  sincere,  patriotic, 
and  well-suggested  design  of  blending  all  classes  and 
parties  in  France,  and  uniting  them  in  support  of  a  com- 
mon government  and  in  defense  of  the  country.  Soon 
after  his  elevation,  he  began  indeed,  systematically  to  dis- 
parage the  genius  of  those  whose  writings  were  supposed 
to  have  produced  that  alteration  of  sentiment  on  politics 
and  religion,  which  had  given  direction,  if  not  existence, 
to  the  French  Revolution.  He  must  in  his  heart  have 
admired  Voltaire.    His  own  manner  of  seeinfT  manv  thino^s 

CD  •/  CD 

showed  that  he  had  read  and  studied  him  too.  If  not,  it 
proves  how  the  genius  and  style  of  that  lively  yet  diligent 
and  profound  writer  have  pervaded  the  age  which  suc- 
ceeds him,  and  indirectly  influence  the  thoughts  and  dis- 
positions of  the  greatest  statesmen  of  our  time.  I  have 
been  confirmed  in  my  conjectures,  of  the  secret  admira- 
tion of  Napoleon  for  Voltaire,  by  learning  that  he  fre- 
quently read  his  plays  aloud  to  his  little  society  at  St.  He- 
lena. He  criticised,  he  censured,  he  ridiculed,  but  he  read 
the  same  play  over  and  over  again,  and  his  thoughts  were 
much  occupied  with  the  subject.  But  whether  his  own 
satirical  turn  and  quick  perception  of  folly  and  falsehood 
were  borrowed  from  Voltaire  or  not,  he  certainly  was  at 


NAPOLEON'S  OPINION  OF  VOLTAIRE.  167 

some  pains  to  decry  that  great  writer's  philosophy.  He 
employed  Geoffroy  and  Fontanes  to  write  down  the  Ency- 
clopedists, and  extol  the  authors  of  the  age  of  Louis  XIV. 
Under  color  of  vindicating  the  purity  of  language,  the 
simplicity  of  composition,  and  the  classical  character  of 
the  French  drama  and  poetry,  many  covert  attacks  were 
directed  against  the  political  and  religious  maxims  of 
more  recent  authors,  and  yet  more  undisguised  assaults 
encouraged  against  the  moral  character  and  intellectual 
attainments  of  the  philosophers.  Yet,  while  under  the 
immediate  protection  of  the  Consular  and  Imperial  gov- 
ernment this  warfare  against  public  opinion  was  carried 
on.  Napoleon  himself,  from  some  private  predilection,  from 
remorse,  from  candor,  or  from  caprice,  indulged  in  some 
acts  of  infidelity  to  his  unnatural  idols.  He  liked  much, 
saw  frequently,  and  gave  both  money  and  advice  to  Tal- 
ma, whose  style  of  acting,  adapted  to  vigorous  sallies  of 
passion,  and  sudden  vicissitudes  of  fortune,  seemed  con- 
nected with  the  new  school,  and  was  accordingly  the 
object  of  Geoffroy's  virulent  and  incessant  abuse.  Napo- 
eon  procured,  if  he  did  not  write,  some  bitter  answers  to 
Geoffroy's  diatribes  on  the  theatre ;  and  when  that  ser- 
vile critic  had  in  his  invectives  against  Voltaire  outstripped 
the  bounds  of  his  employer's  policy,  he  secretly  atoned 
for  the  outrage  on  departed  genius  by  silently  erecting 
in  a  church  at  Paris  a  marble  monument  to  the  great 
and  calumniated  Philosopher  of  Ferney.  To  Rousseau, 
he  made  no  such  atonement.  He  always  spoke  of  his 
w^orks  with  asperity  and  contempt,  and  in  one  instance 
took  a  very  ungracious  occasion  of  doing  so.  "  C'etait  un 
mauvais  homme,  un  mechant  homme,"  said  he,  at  Erme- 


168  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 

•  nonville,  to  Stanislas  Girardin,  who  had  been  educated 
under  the  auspices,  and  whose  place  was  decorated  with 
various  monuments  in  memory  of  Rousseau.  M.  Girardin 
urged  the  beauty  of  his  style  and  composition,  and  palliated 
the  faults  of  his  character  by  ascribing  to  him  great  purity 
of  intention  and  universal  philanthropy.  "  Non,  c'etait  un 
mechant  homme,  sans  lui  la  France  n'auroit  pas  eu  de 
revolution.^*  Girardin,  smiling,  observed  that  he  was  not 
aware  that  the  First  Consul  considered  the  Revolution 
such  an  unmixed  evil.  "Ah  !"  he  exclaimed,  "vous  voulez 
dire  que  sans  la  revolution  vous  ne  m'auriez  pas  eu  moi  ? 
Peut-etre  pas ;  je  le  crois ;  mais  aussi  la  France  n'en  se- 
rait-elle  que  plus  heureuse."  When  invited  to  see  the 
hermitage,  the  cap,  table,  great  chair,  etc.,  of  Jean 
Jacques,  he  said,  "  Ah  bah  !  non,  je  n'ai  aucun  gout  pour 
ces  niaiseries-lci,  montrez-les  a  mon  frere  Louis ;  il  en  est 
bien  digne."  He  happened,  however,  to  be  unusually 
cross  on  that  day.  Josephine  had  offended  him  in  more 
ways  than  one.  He  was  even  little  enough  to  be  nettled 
at  her  sitting  down  with  the  rest  of  the  company  without 
waiting  for  him ;  for  even  before  he  assumed  the  title  of 
Emperor,  he  grew  somewhat  tenacious  of  outward  cere- 
mony, and  thought,  perhaps,  that  by  exacting  it  as  Consul, 
he  prepared  and  familiarized  men's  minds  to  the  etiquette 
of  a  court.  He  was  moreover  sore  at  a  hint,  thrown  out 
half  in  jest  and  half  in  earnest,  that  his  success  in  shooting 
had  been  in  consequence  of  some  contrivance  to  lame  the 
game,  or  to  turn  out  tame  animals,  without  his  knowledge, 
for  him  to  fire  upon.  He  was  a  bad  shot,  but  he  w^as 
above  once  in  his  life  indignant  at  discovering  such  a 
practice,  which  he  justly  remarked  was  childish  and  de- 


NAPOLEON  AND  THE  PRESS.  169 

grading  adulation.  He  was  perhaps  at  all  times,  and  cer- 
tainly during  the  first  years  of  his  elevation,  more  liable 
to  unbecoming  anger  at  the  abuse  and  calumnies  of  the 
public  journals.  His  irritation  at  our  newspapers  con- 
tributed to  estrange  him  from  England  after  the  Peace  of 
Amiens,  and  to  accelerate  and  embitter  the  rupture  be- 
tween the  two  countries.  Yet  he  was  much  struck  with  a 
remark  of  M.  Gallois,  to  whom  he  complained  of  the 
licentiousness  of  the  English  press.  M.  Gallois  very  per- 
tinently observed,  that  he  had  volumes  and  volumes  of 
libel  equal  in  malignity  against  Louis  XIV.,  but  that 
nothing  now  was  remembered  of  them  but  the  fretful  sensi- 
bility which  that  monarch  betrayed  about  them,  and  the 
false  steps  in  policy  which  more  than  once  they  had  pro- 
voked him  to  take.  Gallois  wrote  the  report  on  the  Peace 
of  Amiens,  but  he  declined  composing  that  on  the  rupture, 
which  was  written  by  Daru  from  the  same  materials  as 
had  been  furnished  to  Gallois  by  the  First  Consul.  Not 
very  long  afterward,  the  name  of  Gallois  was  presented  in 
a  list  for  the  Legion  of  Honor ;  Napoleon  unhandsomely 
erased  it,  saying  with  a  smile,  "  Quand  on  sait  bien  par- 
ler  pour  la  paix,  il  faut  aussi  sqavoir  bien  parler  pour  la 
guerre."  He  continued,  however,  to  converse  with  Gallois 
occasionally,  in  a  friendly  and  even  confidential  manner; 
but  though  favored  and  even  caressed,  that  independent 
and  modest  man  observed  his  growing  impatience  of  con- 
tradiction, his  propensity  to  war,  and,  above  all,  his  de- 
termination as  well  as  capacity  of  governing  every  thing 
himself;  and  he  resolved  not  to  place  himself  in  a  situa- 
tion where  he  could  not  both  with  honor  and  comfort 
express  and  follow  his  own  opinion  of  right  or  wrong.    Ho 


17a  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 

therefore  declined  the  prefecture  of  Besan^on,  avoided 
other  public  employments,  and  voted  silently  but  uni- 
formly in  those  assemblies  of  vi^hich  he  was  a  member,  in 
favor  of  that  party  and  those  principles  M^hich  were  not 
hostile  to  the  establishment  or  revival  of  any  arbitrary 
power  in  the  state.  He  ceased  to  visit  the  Tuileries,  but 
be  never  experienced  from  the  Consular  or  Imperial  gov- 
ernment, the  slightest  vexation  or  persecution.  Napoleon, 
even  in  the  plenitude  of  his  power,  seldom  gratified  his 
revenge  by  resorting  to  any  act  either  illegal  or  unjust, 
though  he  frequently  indulged  his  ill-humor  by  speaking 
both  of  and  to  those  who  had  displeased  him  in  a  manner 
mortifying  to  their  feelings  and  their  pride.  The  instances 
of  his  love  of  vengeance  are  very  few :  they  are  generally 
of  an  insolent  rather  than  a  sanguinary  charcter,  more 
discreditable  to  his  head  than  his  heart,  and  a  proof  of  his 
want  of  manners,  taste,  and  possibly  feeling,  but  not  of  a 
dye  to  affect  his  humanity.  Of  what  man  possessed  of 
such  extended,  yet  such  disputed  authority,  can  so  much 
be  said  ?  Of  Washington  ?  of  Cromwell  ?  But  Wash- 
ington if  he  had  ever  equal  provocation  and  motives  for 
revenge,  certainly  never  possessed  such  power  to  gratify 
it.  His  glory,  greater  in  truth  than  that  of  Caesar,  Crom- 
well, and  Bonaparte,  was  that  he  never  aspired;  but  he 
disdained  such  power  ;*  he  never  had  it,  and  can  not 
therefore  deserve  immoderate  praise  for  not  exerting  what 

*  "  He  might  have  been  a  king 
But  that  he  understood 
How  much  it  was  a  meaner  thing 

To  be  unjustly  great  than  honorably  good." 
^Verses  on  Lord  Fairfax,  by  Villiers,  Duke  of  Buckingham.) 


NAPOLEON'S  LOVE  OF  JUSTICE.       .  171 

he  did  not  possess.  In  the  affair  of  General  Lee,  he  did 
not,  if  I  recollect,  show  much  inclination  to  forgive.  Even 
Cromwell  did  not  possess  the  power  of  revenge  to  the 
same  extent  as  Napoleon.  There  is  reason,  however,  to 
infer  from  his  moderation  and  forbearance  that  he  would 
have  used  it  as  sparingly.  But  Cromwell  is  less  irre- 
proachable on  the  score  of  another  vice,  viz.,  ingratitude. 
Napoleon  not  only  never  forgot  a  favor,  but  unlike  most 
ambitious  characters  never  allowed  subsequent  injuries  to 
cancel  his  recollection  of  services.  He  was  uniformly 
indulgent  to  the  faults  of  those  whom  he  had  once  distin- 
guished. He  saw  them,  he  sometimes  exposed  and  recti- 
fied, but  he  never  punished  or  revenged  them.  Many  have 
blamed  him  for  this  on  the  score  of  policy ;  but  if  it  was 
not  sense  and  calculation,  it  should  be  ascribed  to  good- 
nature. None,  I  presume,  will  impute  it  to  weakness  or 
want  of  discernment.  He  described  himself,  however,  as 
a  just,  not  an  easy  man.  "  Je  ne  suis  pas  bouy  non,  je  ne 
suis  pas  bon,  je  ne  I'ai  jamais  ete,  mais  je  suis  sur^  True 
it  is,  as  I  have  before  remarked,  that  his  dislike  and  even 
his  displeasure  seldom  led  to  any  persecution,  or  even 
permanent  exclusion  of  the  objects  of  it  from  promotion  ; 
though  it  exposed  them  to  asperity  of  language  and  other 
petty  mortifications.  He  not  only  preserved  in  high  em- 
ployment, but  advanced  to  higher,  some  persons  whose 
opinions  were  most  hostile  to  his  system  of  government,  as 
well  as  others  of  whom  he  spoke  with  anger  and  contempt. 
In  repressing  the  injustice  of  all  authorities  inferior  to  his 
own,  he  was  impartial,  severe,  and  inflexible.  Neither 
minister,  prefect,  officer,  nor  military  authority,  could  ven- 
ture to  exceed  the  letter  of  the  law.    Never  was  govern- 


172  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 

merit,  in  France  at  least,  so  little  military  as  that  of  Napo- 
leon, never  was  justice  more  steadily  and  equally  adminis- 
tered between  men,  and  even  between  government  and  its 
subjects.  There  was  indeed  at  the  latter  period  of  his  reign  ' 
no  security  whatever  against  abuse  but  the  knowledge, 
vigilance,  and  will  of  one  man  ;*  but  scarcely  in  an  in- 
stance, save  the  conscriptions  when  the  Empire  was 
pressed  for  supplies  of  men,  did  that  dependence  on  the 
ubiquity  of  the  Emperor's  protection  and  the  inflexible 
impartiality  of  his  administration,  fail  any  of  his  subjects. 
Had  any  prefect  or  military  man  interfered  with  the  elec* 
tion  of  deputies,  nomination  of  juries,  or  common  transac- 
tions of  life  in  the  way  since  practiced  in  every  department, 
such  illegal  and  vexatious  interference  would,  without 
even  the  necessity  of  a  remonstance,  have  been  imme- 
diately punished  and  remedied  under  the  Imperial  govern- 
ment. The  principles  of  freedom,  which  can  alone  secure 
good  institutions  from  abuse,  were  nearly  extinguished 
under  his  absolute  rule,  and  have  revived  and  attained 
some  vigor  since  his  downfall ;  but  equality  f  before  the 
law,  impartiality  in  the  administration  of  justice,  and  cer- 
tainty of  redress  in  case  of  any  injury,  either  from  indi- 
viduals or  from  civil  and  military  authorities,  have  not 
been  greater  or  even  so  great  under  the  succeeding  gov- 

*  The  following  picture  of  Napoleon's  government  is  taken  chiefly 
from  M.  Gallois,  who  has  frequently,  and  nearly  in  the  terms  of  the 
text,  given  me  such  a  representation  of  the  justice,  policy,  and  vigi- 
lance of  his  administration  as  I  have  here  endeavored  to  preserve. 

f  "  Le  Franjais  aime  I'egalite,  il  ne  se  soucie  pas  beaucoup  de  la 
liberte,"  was  the  remark  of  Napoleon  to  Lord  Ebrington  in  Elba ; 
and  if  it  was  well  founded,  he  certainly  gave  the  French  the  govern- 
ment they  liked. 


NAPOLEON'S  POWERS  OF  MEMORY.  173 

ernments  during  peace,  as  they  were  under  Napoleon 
at  war  with  half  the  world.  I  received  this  remarkable 
testimony  to  the  character  of  the  Imperial  government* 
from  an  unbiased  and  unsuspected  quarter,  from  M.  Gal- 
lois,  who  had  refused  employment  under  him,  and  was 
too  sincere  and  enlightened  a  friend  of  freedom  not  to 
abhor  a  system  which  depended  exclusively  on  the  char- 
acter of  an  individual.  It  was  the  result  of  observation 
and  reflection,  not  of  personal  attachment,  much  less  of 
habitual  reverence  for  power.  He  admitted  that  the  all- 
penetrating  sagacity  of  Napoleon,  his  indefatigable  dili- 
gence, his  extraordinary  knowledge  of  men  and  things, 
and  his  stern,  inflexible  impartiality,  were,  during  his  life, 
efficacious  substitutes  for  much  better  institutions ;  but  he 
justly  observed  that  the  inherent  vices  would,  in  all  cer- 
tainty, have  been  felt,  as  they,  in  fact,  were,  the  moment 
that  the  wonderful  genius  which  corrected  them,  ceased 
to  be  at  the  head  of  the  state.  "  Je  n'aime  pas  beaucoup 
les  femmes,  ni  le  jeu,"  said  he  once  to  my  informant,  "enfin 
rien;  je  suis  tout-a-fait  un  etre  politique."  His  powers 
of  application  and  memory  seemed  almost  preternatural. 
There  was  scarcely  a  man  in  France,  and  none  in  employ- 
ment, with  whose  private  history,  characters,  and  quali- 
fications, he  was  not  acquainted.  He  had,  when  Emperor, 
notes  and  tables,  which  he  called  the  moral  statistics  of , 
his  Empire.  He  revised  and  corrected  them  by  minis- 
terial reports,  private  conversation,  and  correspondence. 
He  received  all  letters  himself,  and  what  seems  incredible, 

*  It  was  confirmed  in  many  particulars  by  other  sober-minded  and 
credible  men  who  lived  under  his  government,  and  had  access  to  him 
or  to  his  ministers. 


174  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 


he  read  and  recollected  all  that  he  received.  He  slept 
little,  and  was  never  idle  one  instant  v^hen  avv^ake.  When 
he  had  an  hour  for  diversion,  he  not  unfrequently  employ- 
ed it  in  looking  over  a  book  of  logarithms,  which  he  ac- 
knowledged, with  some  surprise,  was  at  all  seasons  of  his 
life  a  recreation  to  him.  So  retentive  was  his  memory 
of  numbers,  that  sums  over  which  he  had  once  glanced 
his  eye  were  in  his  mind  ever  after.  He  recollected  the 
respective  produce  of  all  taxes  through  every  year  of  his 
administration,  and  could,  at  any  time,  repeat  any  one  of 
them,  even  to  the  centimes.  Thus  his  detection  of  errors 
in  accounts  appeared  marvelous,  and  he  often  indulged  in 
the  pardonable  artifice  of  displaying  these  faculties  in  a 
way  to  create  a  persuasion  that  his  vigilance  was  almost 
supernatural.  In  running  over  an  account  of  expenditure, 
he  perceived  the  rations  of  a  battalion  charged  on  a  cer- 
tain day  at  Besangon.  "Mais  le  bataillon  n'etait  pas  la," 
said  he,  "il  y  a  erreur."  The  minister,  recollecting  that 
the  Emperor  had  been  at  the  time  out  of  France,  and 
confiding  in  the  regularity  of  his  subordinate  agents,  per- 
sisted that  the  battalion  must  have  been  at  Besangon. 
Napoleon  insisted  on  further  inquiry.  It  turned  out  to  be 
a  fraud  and  not  a  mistake.  The  peculating  accountant 
was  dismissed,  and  the  scrutinizing  spirit  of  the  Emperor 
circulated  with  the  anecdote  through  every  branch  of  the 
public  service,  in  a  way  to  deter  every  clerk  from  com- 
mitting the  slightest  error,  from  fear  of  immediate  detec- 
tion. His  knowledge,  in  other  matters,  was  often  as 
accurate  and  nearly  as  surprising.  Not  only  were  the 
Swiss  deputies  in  1801  astonished  at  his  familiar  acquaint- 
ance with  the  history,  laws,  and  usages  of  their  country, 


NAPOLEON'S  NAVAL  KNOWLEDGE.  175 


which  seemed  the  result  of  a  life  of  research,  but  even 
the  envoys  from  the  insignificant  republic  of  San  Marino* 
were  astonished  at  finding  that  he  knew  the  families  and 
feuds  of  that  small  community,  and  discoursed  on  the 
respective  views,  conditions  and  interests  of  parties  and 
individuals,  as  if  he  had  been  educated  in  the  petty  squab- 
bles and  local  politics  of  that  diminutive  society.  I  re- 
member a  simple  native  of  that  place  told  me  in  1814,  that 
the  phenomenon  was  accounted  for  by  the  Saint  of  the 
town  appearing  to  him  over-night,  in  order  to  assist  his 
deliberations.  Some  anecdotes  related  to  me  by  the  dis- 
tinguished officer  who  conveyed  him  in  the  Undaunted  to 
Elba  in  1814,  prove  the  extent,  variety,  and  accuracy  of 
knowledge  of  Napoleon,  On  his  first  arrival  on  the  coast, 
in  company  with  Sir  Neil  Campbell,  an  Austrian  and  a 
Russian  commissioner,  Captain  Usher  waited  upon  him, 
and  w^as  invited  to  dinner.  He  conversed  much  on  naval 
affairs,  and  explained  the  plan  he  had  once  conceived  of 
forming  a  vast  fleet  of  160  ships  of  the  line.  He  asked 
Captain  Usher  if  he  did  not  think  it  would  have  been 
practicable ;  and  Usher  answered,  that  with  the  immense 
means  he  then  commanded,  he  saw  no  impossibility  in 
building  and  manning  any  number  of  ships,  but  his  diffi- 
culty would  have  consisted  in  forming  thorough  seamen, 
as  distinguished  from  what  we  call  smooth-water  sailors. 
Kapolaon  replied  that  he  had  provided  for  that  also ;  he 
had  organized  exercises  for  them  afloat,  not  only  in  har- 
bor, but  in  smaller  vessels  near  the  coast,  by  which  they 
might  have  been  trained  to  go  through,  even  in  rough 

*  They  waited  upon  him  at  Bologna. 


176  FOREIGN  RExMINISCENCES. 

weather,  the  most  arduous  manoeuvres  of  seamanship 
which  he  enumerated ;  and  he  mentioned  among  them 
the  keeping  a  ship  clear  of  her  anchors  in  a  heavy  sea. 
The  Austrian,  who  suspected  Napoleon  of  talking  in  gen- 
eral upon  subjects  he  imperfectly  understood,  acknowledg- 
ing his  own  ignorance,  asked  him  the  meaning  of  the 
term,  the  nature  of  the  difficulty,  and  the  method  of  sur- 
mounting it.  On  this  the  Emperor  took  up  two  forks,  and 
explained  the  problem  in  seamanship,  which  is  not  an 
easy  one,  in  so  short,  scientific,  and  practical  a  way,  that 
Captain  Usher  assured  me  he  knew  none  but  professional 
men,  and  very  few  of  them,  who  could  ofF-hand  have 
given  a  so  perspicuous,  seamanlike,  and  satisfactory  solution 
of  the  question.  Any  board  of  officers  would  have  infer- 
red, from  such  an  exposition,  that  the  person  making  it 
had  received  a  naval  education,  and  was  a  practical  sea- 
man. Yet  how  different  were  the  objects  on  which  the 
mind  of  Napoleon  must  have  been  long,  as  well  as  recent- 
ly, employed ! 

On  the  same  voyage,  when  the  propriety  of  putting  into 
a  harbor*  of  Corsica  was  under  discussion,  and  the  want 
of  a  pilot  urged  as  an  objection.  Napoleon  described  the 
depth  of  water,  shoals,  currents,  bearings,  and  anchorage, 
with  a  minuteness  which  seemed  as  if  he  had  himself 
acted  in  that  capacity;  and  which,  on  reference  to  the 
charts,  was  found  scrupulously  accurate.  When  his  cav- 
alry and  baggage  arrived  at  Porto  Farap,  the  commander 
of  the  transports  said  that  he  had  been  on  the  point  of  put- 
ting into  a  creek  near  Genoa  (which  he  named,  but  I  have 

*  I  think  Bastia. 


NAPOLEON'S  ATTENTION  TO  DETAILS.  177 

forgotten) ;  upon  hearing  which  Napoleon  exclaimed,  "  It 
is  well  you  did  not ;  it  is  the  worst  place  in  the  Mediter- 
ranean ;  you  would  not  have  got  to  sea  again  for  a  month 
or  six  weeks."  He  then  proceeded  to  allege  reasons  for 
the  difficulty,  which  were  quite  sufficient,  if  the  peculiari- 
ties of  the  little  bay  were  really  such  as  he  described;  but 
Captain  Usher,  having  never  heard  of  them  during  his 
service  in  the  Mediterranean,  suspected  that  the  Emperor 
was  mistaken,  or  had  confounded  some  report  he  had 
heard  from  mariners  in  his  youth.  When,  however,  he 
mentioned  the  circumstance,  many  years  afterward,  to 
Captain  Dundas,  who  had  recently  cruised  in  the  Gulf  of 
Genoa,  that  officer  confirmed  the  report  of  Napoleon  in  all 
its  particulars,  and  expressed  astonishment  at  its  correct- 
ness. "  For"  (said  he)  "  I  thought  it  a  discovery  of  my 
own,  having  ascertained  all  you  have  just  told  me  about 
that  creek,  by  observation  and  experience."*  Great  as 
was  his  appetite  for  knowledge,  his  memory  in  retaining,' 
and  his  quickness  in  applying  it,  his  labor  both  in  acquir- 
ing and  using  it  was  equal  to  them.  In  application  to 
business  he  could  wear  out  the  men  most  inured  to  study. 
In  the  deliberations  on  the  Code  Civil,  many  of  which 
lasted  ten,  twelve  or  fifteen  hours  without  intermission,  he 
was  always  the  last  whose  attention  flagged ;  and  he  was 
so  little  disposed  to  spare  himself  trouble,  that  even  in  the 
Moscow  campaign  he  sent  regularly  to  every  branch  of 
administration  in  Paris  directions  in  detail,  which  in  every 
government  but  his  would,  both  from  usage  and  con- 
venience, have  been  left  to  the  discretion  of  the  super- 

*  Related  to  me  by  Captain  Usher  at  Paris,  1826. 


178  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 

intending  minister,  or  to  the  common  routine  of  business. 
Tliis  and  other  instances  of  his  dihgence  are  more  wonder- 
ful than  praiseworthy.  He  had  established  an  office  with 
twelve  clerks  and  Mounier  at  their  head,  whose  sole  duty 
it  was  to  extract,  translate,  abridge,  and  arrange  under 
heads  the  contents  of  our  English  newspapers.  He 
charged  Mounier  to  omit  no  abuse  of  him,  however  coarse 
or  virulent ;  no  charge,  however  injurious  or  malignant. 
As,  however,  he  did  not  specify  the  Empress,  Mounier, 
who  reluctantly  complied  with  his  orders,  ventured  to  sup- 
press, or  at  least  to  soften,  any  phrases  about  her;  but 
Napoleon  questioned  others  on  the  contents  of  the  English 
papers ;  detected  Mounier  and  his  committee  in  their  mu- 
tilations of  the  articles,  and  forbade  them  to  withold  any 
intelligence  or  any  censure  they  met  with  in  the  publica- 
tions which  they  were  appointed  to  examine.  Yet  with 
all  this  industry,  and  with  the  multiplicity  of  topics  which 
engaged  his  attention,  he  found  time  for  private  and  vari- 
ous reading.  His  librarian  was  employed  for  some  time 
every  morning  in  replacing  maps  and  books  which  his 
unwearied  and  insatiable  curiosity  had  consulted  before 
breakfast.  He  read  all  letters  whatever  addressed  to  him- 
self, whether  in  his  private  or  public  capacity ;  and  it 
must,  I  believe,  be  acknowledged  that  he  often  took  the 
same  liberty  with  those  directed  to  other  people.  He  had 
indulged  in  that  unjustifiable  practice*  before  his  eleva- 
tion, and  such  was  his  impatience  to  open  both  parcels 
and  letters  that,  however  employed,  he  could  seldom 
defer  the  gratification  of  his  curiosity  an  instant   after 

#f  Denon,  Mechin,  and  others. 


NAPOLEON'S  IMPATIENT  CURIOSITY.  179 

either  came  under  his  notice  or  his  reach.  Josephine,  and 
others,  well  acquainted  with  his  habits,  very  pardonably 
took  some  advantage  of  this  propensity.  Matters  which 
she  feared  to  mention  to  him  were  written  and  directed  to 
her,  and  the  letters  unopened  left  in  his  way.  He  often 
complied  with  wishes  which  he  thought  he  had  detected 
by  an  artifice,  more  readily  than  had  they  been  presented 
in  the  form  of  claim,  petition,  or  request.  He  liked  to 
know  every  thing ;  but  he  liked  all  he  did  to  have  the  ap- 
pearance of  springing  entirely  from  himself,  feeling,  like 
many  others  in  power,  an  unwillingness  to  encourage  even 
those  they  Jove  in  an  opinion  that  they  have  an  influence 
over  them,  or  that  there  is  any  certain  channel  to  their 
favor.  His  childish  eagerness  about  cases,  led  in  one 
instance  to  a  gracious  act  of  playful  munificence.  He 
received  notice  of  the  arrival  of  a  present  from  Constanti- 
nople, in  society  with  the  Empress  and  other  ladies.  He 
ordered  the  parcel  *  to  be  brought  up,  and  instantly  tore  it 
open  with  his  own  hand.  It  contained  a  large  aigrette  of 
diamonds,  which  he  broke  into  various  pieces,  and  he  then 
threw  the  largest  into  her  Imperial  Majesty's  lap,  and 
some  into  that  of  every  lady  in  the  circle. 

With  the  temper  and  habits  I  have  described,  he  was 
not  likely  to  be  scrupulous  in  furnishing  his  police  with 
much  vexatious  authority.  It  was  accordingly  most  ac- 
tive and  most  odious ;  but  such  has  always  been  and  is 
still  the  practice  in  France.  Napoleon's  agents  were  for 
the  most  part  restored  emigrants,  ex-nobles,  and  pretended 
Royalists.    Many,  after  the  restoration,  were  indiscreet 

•  Mechin. 


180  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 

■  ■■  ■■■■«■■■  1  ■.  I,,  ..^i,  ,  .^  .        ■.-.^  .  .....I  «..  ii.iiB...  mm^^^m^,  Hill        n«M*aMa^H^Mr 

enough  to  acknowledge  or  at  least  to  prove  by  their  com- 
plaints of  the  niggardly  boons  which  they  received  from 
Louis  XVIIL,  that  the  profit  derived  from  betraying  the 
cause  of  legitimacy  under  the  Usurper  had  exceeded  what 
they  earned  by  their  support  of  it  under  a  Bourbon  prince. 
Napoleon  restored,  with  the  exception  of  forests,  all  lands 
that  were  not  sold  before  his  accession  to  power.  He 
gave  the  proprietors  of  such  restored  land  their  full  share 
of  office,  favor,  and  power  under  his  government,  and  he 
left  the  few  who  were  unwilling  to  serve  him  unmolested 
in  the  enjoyment  of  their  estates.  Extensive  as  the  con- 
fiscations during  the  Revolution  were,  the  barbarous  law 
of  corruption  of  blood  was  unknown  in  France,  and  the  , 
rights  of  those  relations  who  had  neither  emigrated  nor 
been  condemned  by  any  tribunal  remained  inviolate.  This 
circumstance,  together  with  the  restitutions  of  lands  under 
the  Directory  and  Napoleon,  and  of  the  forests  under 
the  Bourbons,  has  rendered  the  change  in  real  property* 
much  less  extensive  in  France  than  is  generally  supposed. 
Much,  indeed,  has  been  divided  by  the  operation  of  the 
law  of  inheritance ;  but  in  those  cases  it  still  remains  in 
branches  of  the  family  of  the  original  possessor.  The 
richest  proprietors  of  France  are  still  to  be  found  among 
the  nobles  who  bore  arms  against  their  country,  or  their 
descendants  and  relations ;  and  the  whole  mass  of  con- 
fiscated land  not  now  in  possession  of  the  families  to  whom 
it  belonged  in  1793,  or  of  those  to  whom  those  families 

*  My  observation  is  of  course  confined  to  real  property  of  a  private 
nature.  All  church  and  many  corporation  lands  were  sold  or  other- 
wise alienated,  and  none,  I  presume,  have  been  directly  or  indirectly 
restored. 


NAPOLEON  AND  THE  OLD  NOBILITY.  181 

have  sold  it,  would  not  amount  to  the  value  of  property 
lost  by  confiscation  in  Ireland  by  the  single  family  of 
Fitzgerald.  Napoleon,  especially  during  the  first  years  of 
his  Imperial  government,  hazarded  more  from  his  disposi- 
tion to  reconcile  the  old  nobility  to  his  dynasty,  than  from . 
any  other  partiality.  A  large  portion  of  v^hat  he  gave 
privately  fell  to  their  share,  sometimes  as  objects  of  muni- 
ficence and  charity,  sometimes  as  spies  and  secret  agents 
both  abroad  and  at  home.  Meanw^hile,  the  Jacobins,  ex- 
cluded by  him  from  all  ostensible  office,  remained  (with  the 
exception  of  Barere,  and  one  or  two  other  names  polluted 
by  corruption  as  well  as  stained  with  blood)  in  the  pov- 
erty which,  it  must  be  acknowledged,  their  possession  of 
power  never  had  altered.  Many  leading  men  during  the 
reign  of  Terror,  and  several  of  the  Directors  and  their 
ministers,  lived,  long  after  their  retreat,  in  obscurity  and 
penury,  without  having  contracted  the  habits  of  expense 
or  acquired  the  means  of  indulging  it,  from  the  possession 
of  a  large  share  of  the  government  of  a  rich  and  extensive 
empire.*  Truth  should  be  told  even  of  demons.  The 
Jacobins,  sanguinary  as  they  were,  are  calumniated  when 
a  love  of  rapine  is  added  to  the  catalogue  of  their  iniqui- 
ties. Even  the  cowardly  and  cruel  Robespierre  was  pure 
about  money ;  and  the  general  character  of  that  disor- 
ganizing party  was  a  disdain  of  luxury  and  wealth.  The 
fortunes  of  Napoleon's  ministers  and  marshals  have  been 
in  like  manner  grossly  exaggerated  by  his  detractors. 
Some  turned  out  small  after  their  death,  and  the  largest 
were  derived  almost  exclusively  from  foreign  plunder  or 

*  The  concluding  words  of  Mr.  Pitt's  epitaph  are  applicable  to 
nearly  all  of  them :     *'  They  died  poor,''^ 


182  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 

foreign  servility.  The  Princes  of  the  Continent,  when 
stooping  to  solicit  a  share  of  that  spoil  of  dominion  which 
Napoleon's  victories  had  procured  him,  resorted  to  those 
means  which  they  knew  to  be  most  prevalent  and  most 
efficacious  in  their  own  legitimate  and  unprincipled  courts. 
They  furthered  or  hoped  to  further  their  selfish  designs 
by  presents,  bribes,  and  flattery  to  the  ministers  and  fa- 
vorites of  that  man  whom  they  have  since  spoken  of  as  an 
upstart  and  usurper,  unfit  to  be  admitted  into  their  princely 
society  !  He  possibly  connived  at  the  practice.  He  most 
justly  and  cordially  despised  the  pusillanimous  creatures 
who  resorted  to  it.  He  sometimes  treated  them*  with 
rudeness  and  insolence.  He  on  one  occasion  dined  with 
his  hat  on,  when  three  kings  and  several  sovereign  princes 
sat  uncovered  at  table.  Returning  from  the  chase  with 
the  Kings  of  Saxony,  Wurtemberg,  and  Bavaria  in  the 
carriage,  he  stopped  at  the  Malmaison  to  pay  a  private 
visit  to  his  divorced  wife,  Josephine,  and  kept  the  mon- 
archs  waiting  at  least  an  hour  at  the  door.  The  King  of 
Bavaria  who  recounted  the  story  to  my  informant  was 
more  diverted  than  affronted  at  the  incident,  and  said, 
"Puisqu'on  nous  traite  comme  des  lacquais,  il  faut  nous 
divertir  comme  tels,"  and  asking  for  bread,  cheese,  fruit 
and  wine,  regaled  himself  with  that  homely  cheer  in  the 

*  "  Have  we  not  seen  his  morning  chamber  fiU'd 
With  sceptred  slaves  who  waited  to  salute  him  ? 

Menial  Kings 
Ran  coursing  up  and  down  his  palace  yard, 
Stood  silent  in  his  presence,  watched  his  eyes, 
And  at  his  least  command  all  started  out 
Like  racers  to  the  goal."  All  for  Love, 


NAPOLEON'S  COURT.  183 

^mm^l^       I      ■■!!  B^M^—  ■  ■■■■■■ 11  I     I  ■  11       ■  11  <  I  ■  — W^^^l— ^— — ^.^MM 1^^— ^W— ^  II 

carriage  or  in  the  hall,  with  admirable  good-humor  and 
excellent  appetite.  Such  or  similar  improprieties  were 
not  unusual  at  his  Imperial  court.  The  ill-breeding  gen- 
erated in  camps  and  in  clubs,  and  the  dry,  undignified 
formality  which  often  disfigures  the  manners  of  official 
men,  were  discernible  in  his  drawing-room  and  ante-cham- 
ber ;  but  there  was  no  appearance  and  very  little  reality 
in  the  dissoluteness  of  manners  attributed  by  our  ignorant 
libelists  to  his  family  and  favorites.  I  have  heard  of  his 
amours.  They  were  neither  frequent  nor  scandalous.  A 
Polish  lady  and  Mademoiselle  George,  the  actress,  have 
been  mentioned.  He  had  a  son  by  the  former,  and  some 
pretend  that  he  left  two  natural  children  by  some  other 
woman.  But  on  the  whole,  his  court,  if  not  the  most 
refined  or  agreeable,  was  the  least  immoral  and  dissipated 
known  in  France  for  three  centuries.  He  encouraged  his 
marshals,  generals,  and  ministers  to  marry,  and  was  desir- 
ous they  should  form  alliances  with  the  families  of  the 
ancient  nobility.  On  the  other  hand,  he  set  his  face 
against  ill-assorted  marriages'  in  age,  fortune,  or  station. 
There  was  a  story  that  he  had  collected  the  names  of  all 
the  heiresses  in  his  dominions,  with  the  intention  of  be- 
stowing them,  even  against  their  will,  on  his  favorite  of- 
ficers or  dependents. 

But  many  projects  that  passed  through  his  inventive 
mind  were  more  abruptly  started  in  conversation  by  him, 
and  afterward  repeated  as  deliberate  designs  by  his  court- 
iers and  injudicious  admirers.  If  liable  to  strong  objec- 
tions in  principle,  they  were,  after  his  downfall,  confidently 
stated  by  his  calumniators  to  have  been  measures  in  con- 
templation or  in  the  course  of  completion  by  the  Imperial 


184  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 

Government.  Thus,  an  idea  of  confining  the  study  of  all 
schools,  universities,  and  public  institutions  to  a  regulated 
number  of  books  printed  and  published  by  authority,  and 
an  intention  to  burn  all  others,  and  reduce  the  Biblio- 
theque  Imperiale  and  every  public  library  to  the  legal 
number,  w^as  gravely  imputed  to  him  by  writers,  orators,* 
and  flatterers,  who  found  their  interest  in  propagating 
calumnies  against  fallen  greatness.  His  conversation,  in 
truth,  was  full  of  projects,  sometimes  merely  fanciful  for 
the  exercise  of  his  unwearied  understanding,  sometimes  for 
the  purpose  of  sounding  the  opinions  of  others  on  schemes 
for  which  he  had  an  inclination,  and  sometimes  for  that  of 
really  organizing  and  promoting  the  gigantic  designs  he 
had  conceived.  "  II  produisait  beaucoup,"  said  M.  de  Tal- 
leyrand to  me.  "C'est  incalculable  ce  qu'il  produisait,  plus 
qu'aucun  homme,  oui,  plus  qu'aucun  quatre  hommes  que 
j'aie  jamais  connus.  Son  genie  etait  inconcevable.  Rien 
n'egalait  son  energie,  son  imagination,  son  esprit,  sa  capa- 
cite  de  travail,  sa  facilite  de  produire.  II  avait  de  la  saga- 
cite  aussi.  Du  cote  du  jugement  il  n'etait  pas  si  fort ;  mais 
encore  quand  il  vouloit  se  donner  le  temps  il  savoit  profiter 
du  jugement  des  autres.  Ce  n'etait  que  rarement  que  son 
mauvais  jugement  I'emportait,  et  c'etait  toujours  lorsqu'il 
ne  s'etoit  pas  donne  le  temps  de  consulter  celui  d'autres 
personnes." 

Among  his  projects  were  many  connected  with  the  arts 
and  with  literature.  They  were  all,  perhaps,  subservient 
to  political  purposes,  generally  gigantic,  abruptly  prepared, 

:  *  Even  Lord  Liverpool  condescended  to  allude  to  this  foolish  impu- 
tation, and  gravely  stated  in  the  House  that  the  interests  of  literature 
required  the  downfall  of  Napoleon, 


NAPOLEON'S  TASTE  FOR  THE  ARTS.         J 85 

and  in  all  likelihood  as  suddenly  conceived.  Many  were 
topics  of  conversation  and  subjects  for  speculation,  not 
serious,  practical,  or  digested  designs.  Though  not  insens- 
ible to  the  arts  or  to  literature,  he  was  suspected  latterly 
of  considering  them  rather  as  pohtical  engines  or  embel- 
lishments than  as  sources  of  enjoyment.  M.  de  Talleyrand, 
and  several  artists,  concurred  in  saying  that  "il  avait  le 
sentiment  du  Grand,  mais  non  pas  celui  du  Beau."  He 
had  written  "  bon  sujet  d'un  tableau,"  opposite  to  some 
passage  in  Letourneur's  translation  of  Ossian,  and  he  had 
certainly  a  passion  for  that  poem.  His  censure  on  David, 
for  choosing  the  battle  at  the  Straits  of  Thermopylae  as 
a  subject  for  a  picture,  was  that  of  a  general  rather  thgji 
connoisseur:  it  smelt,  if  I  may  say  so,  of  his  shop;  though 
perhaps  the  real  motive  for  it  was  dishke  to  the  republican 
artist,  and  distaste  to  an  act  of  national  resistance  against  a 
great  military  invader.  "  A  bad  subject,"  said  he ;  "  after 
all,  Leonidas  was  turned."  He  had  the  littleness  to  expect 
to  be  prominent  in  every  picture  of  national  victories  of 
his  time,  and  was  displeased  at  a  painting  of  an  action  in, 
Egypt  for  Madame  Murat,  in  which  her  wounded  husband 
was  the  principal  figure.  Power  made  him  impatient  of 
contradiction,*  even  in  trifles ;  and  latterly  he  did  not  like 
his  taste  in  music,  for  which  he  had  no  turn,  to  be  disputed. 
His   proficiency  in  literature  has  been  variously  stated. 

*  He  was  not  so,  however,  either  in  deliberation  or  discussion,  at 
least  when  the  latter  was  invited  bj'  himself.  He  allowed  his  ministers 
to  comment  upon,  and  even  to  object  to  measures  in  contemplation  (pro- 
vided they  acquiesced  in  them  when  adopted)  in  free  and  even  strong 
terms,  and  he  liked  those  he  questioned  on  facts  or  opinions  to  answer 
without  compliment  or  reserve. 


186  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 

He  had  read  much,  but  had  written  little.  In  the  mechan- 
ical part  he  was  certainly  no  adept ;  his  handwriting  was 
nearly  illegible.  Some  would  fain  persuade  me  that  that 
fault  was  intentional,  and  merely  an  artifice  to  conceal  his 
bad  spelling ;  that  he  could  form  his  letters  well  if  he  chose, 
but  was  unwilling  to  let  his  readers  know  too  exactly  the 
use  he  made  of  them.  His  orthography  was  certainly 
not  correct ;  that  of  few  Frenchmen,  not  professed  authors, 
was  so,  thirty  years  ago :  but  his  brothers  Lucien  and 
Louis,  both  literary  men,  and  both  correct  in  their  orthog- 
raphy, write  a  similar  hand,  and  nearly  as  bad  a  one  as  he 
did,  probably  for  the  same  reason;  viz.,  that  they  can  not 
write  a  better  without  great  pains  and  loss  of  time. 

Napoleon,  when  Consul  and  Emperor,  seldom  wrote,  but 
he  dictated  much.  It  was  difficult  to  follow  him,  and  he 
often  objected  to  any  revision  of  what  he  had  dictated. 
When  a  word  had  escaped  his  amanuensis,  and  he  was 
asked  what  it  was,  he  would  answer  somewhat  pettishly,* 
"  Je  ne  repeterai  pas  le  mot.  Reflechissez,  rappelez  vous 
du  mot  que  j'ai  dicte,  et  ecrivez-le,  car  pour  moi  je  ne  le 
repeterai  pas."  Talleyrand,  interested  possibly  in  dis- 
crediting any  posthumous  waitings,  was  very  earnest,  soon 
after  the  news  of  his  death  arrived,  in  inculcating  on  me 
and  others  the  persuasion  that  Napoleon  never  did  and 
never  could  dictate.  "  II  disait,  il  ne  dictait  pas ;  on  ne 
pouvait  ecrire  sous  sa  dictee.  II  ne  scjavait  ni  dieter  ni 
ecrire."  But,  excepting  Talleyrand  and  Charles  IV.  of 
Spain,  I  never  heard  any  one  express  a  doubt  of  his  pow- 
ers of  composition,  or  his  habits  of  dictating.     It  was, 

♦  General  Bertrand  and  Cambaceres. 


NAPOLEON'S  STYLE  AND  DICTION.  187 

indeed,  difficult  to  follow,  and  yet  more  difficult  to  satisfy 
him  in  the  discharge  of  that  office ;    but  M.  Bignon  and 
others*  inured  themselves  to  his  manner.     In  matters  of 
importance  he  would  look  over  and  correct  what  had  been 
written  from  his  dictation,  and  would  afterward  repeat 
word  for  word  the  sentences  he  had  composed  and  revised. 
His  style  was  clear.     "  Soyez  clair,  tout  le  reste  viendra," 
was  a  maxim  of  his.     In  matters  of  business  he  very  justly 
ridiculed  and  defied  that  absurd  canon  of  French  criticism 
which  forbids  the  recurrence  of  a  word  twice  in  the  same 
sentence  or  even  page.     He  had  several  volumes  of  his 
correspondence  copied  out  and  bound  in  folio.     There  is 
some  mystery  attending  the  fate  of  those  books.     From 
them,  however,  the  "lettres  inedites"  were  published.     M. 
de  Talleyrand  pretends  that  his  copies  sometimes  varied, 
and  that  purposely,  from  the  originals,  for  according  to 
him    Napoleon  would  not  scruple,  even  in  transcribing 
treaties,  to  substitute  one  word  for  another.    The  notes  on 
the  life  of  the  Duke  of  Marlborough,  which  was  printed  at 
his  expense,  and  by  his  desire,  were,  it  is  said,  composed 
by  him,  and  paragraphs  of  his  writing  were  occasionally 
inserted  in  the  newspaper.    He  wrote  and  printed  when  a 
young  man,  at  Avignon,  in  1793  or  1794,  a  small  political 
pamphlet,  called  "  Dejeuner  de  trois   Militaires,"   and   I 
have  already  mentioned  that  he  sent  a  manuscript  history 
of  Corsica,  written  before  that  period,  to  Abbe  Raynal. 
But  v/hatever  were  his  own  writings,  his  criticism  on  the 
works  of  others  was  generally  just,  and  always  striking 
and  acute.     Le  Mercier  read  him  a  play  on  the  subject  of 

*  My   authorities  are   numerous :    Cambaceres,   Barbe-Marbois, 
Paru,  Las  Casas,  Bertrand,  and  many  more. 


188  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 

Peter  the  Cruel.  At  the  moment  of  his  fall,  that  discom- 
fited tyrant  was  made  to  say  something  like  this : 

"  De  tout  moa  vaste  empire,  il  me  reste  un  rocher." 

Napoleon  observed,  "  it  will  never  do.  You  mean  to  rouse 
us  to  indignation  against  the  man,  and  you  put  in  his 
mouth  a  pathetic  remark  on  the  contrast  between  his 
former  elevation  and  present  ruin,  that  can  not  fail  to  ex- 
cite the  compassion  of  every  well-regulated  mind."  The 
remark  was  subtle,  and  considering  subsequent  events 
curious  and  singular.  It  is  possible,  however,  that  this  lat- 
ter circumstance  produced  it,  for  the  relator,  though  a 
worthy  man,  was  a  dramatic  author.  In  reading.  Napo- 
leon leant  to  skepticism  and  paradox ;  as,  for  instance,  he 
ridiculed  as  improbable  the  story  of  Caesar's  escape  in  the 
boat,  and  his  speech  to  the  boatman,  and  was  much  in- 
clined to  disparage  the  talents  and  more  particularly  the 
miHtary  skill  of  that  extraordinary  man. 

I  have  seen  the  official  correspondence  with  Caulincourt 
.when  he  was  employed  at  Chatillon  in  1814.  It  gave  me 
the  highest  opinion  of  the  abilities,  integrity,  and  pacific 
principles  of  that  negotiator.  It  did  not,  I  confess,  raise 
my  opinion  of  the  Emperor  Napoleon.  It  was  full  of  sub- 
terfuge and  artifice  on  the  part  of  the  government.  There 
seemed  an  intention  not  only  of  violating  faith  with  the 
confederates,  but  in  case  of  need,  of  disavowing  and  sacri- 
ficing the  honor  of  the  negotiator,  who  was  serving  his 
country  with  zeal,  talent,  and  fidelity.  Caulincourt  reason- 
ably and  honestly  endeavored  to  work  on  the  predilec- 
tions of  Austria  to  procure  good  terms  of  peace  for  Na- 
poleon, but  that  prince  and  his  immediate  advisers  were 


INTRIGUES  AT  CHATILLON.  189 

m  I  — ' — - —  I 

more  disposed  to  avail  themselves  of  any  favorable  dis- 
position in  Austria  to  sow  dissensions.*  They  were  obvi- 
ously anxious  to  obtain  credit  with  France  for  wishing 
and  promoting  peace,  but  not  much  disposed  either  to  ob- 
tain, or  if  obtained,  to  preserve  it.  In  the  mean  while,  the 
partisans  of  peace  at  Paris  were  not  only  prepared,  but 
much  disposed  to  sacrifice  Napoleon  himself  to  that  object, 
which  his  negotiator,  Caulincourt,  was  equally  determined 
not  to  do.  M.  de  Talleyrand  and  the  Duke  Dalberg  fixed 
on  M.  de  Vitrollesf  (a  bad  man,  long  in  emigration,  and 
the  author  of  the  note  secrete  in  1818)  to  convey  to  the 
Austrians  their  desire  to  learn  what  conditions  would  be 
imposed  on  France,  if  France  were  to  agree  to  dethrone 
and  abandon  Napoleon.  Neither  M.  de  Talleyrand  nor  his 
coadjutors  were  aware  that  the  man  they  employed  in  this 
delicate  mission  was  already  the  agent  of  Monsieur  and  the 
Bourbons.    They  had  from  caution  refrained  from  writing, J 

*  Of  these  Maret,  Duke  of  Bassano,  a  well  meaning  and  intelligent, 
but  time-serving  and  obsequious  man,  and  Savary,  one  of  the  vilest 
instruments  of  Napoleon,  were,  I  believe,  the  chiefs. 

f  I  have  related  the  same  story  nearly  in  the  same  words  in  Chap, 
vii.  Part  ii.  B.  of  MS.  Memoirs.  That  relation  was  taken  from 
notes  written  in  1821,  and  the  text  here  is  transcribed,  with  such 
emendations  or  additions  as  subsequent  information  has  supplied  in 
Paris,  in  1826,  from  the  original  notes. 

t  Some  say  he  had  a  ring  which  Talleyrand  had  received  from 
Metternich.  Pozzo  di  Borgo  told  me  he  had  also  two  or  three  in- 
significant words  in  the  Duke  Dalberg^s  handwritings  with  which 
Metternich  or  Nesselrode  was  acquainted,  which  words  were  con- 
cealed in  a  button;  and  Lord  Goderich  told  me  (in  January,  1833), 
that  Vitrolles  brought  with  him  a  note  of  invitation  or  civility  in  Lord 
Castlereagh's  handwriting  to  the  Princesse  de  Vaudemont,  as  part  of 


190  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 

and  Talleyrand  only  gave  him  some  trifles  which  Prince 
Metternich  would  recognize,  and  which  would  serve  for  a 
proof  of  his  being  the  bearer  of  a  message.  When  he 
arrived  at  Chatillon,  the  Allies  were  exasperated  at  the  bad 
faith  of  Napoleon,  and  determined  to  exact  some  change 
as  the  price  of  peace  from  France,  but  not  determined 
what  that  revolution  or  counter-revolution  should  be. 
Austria,  who  had  been  the  most  backward  in  sacrificing 
Napoleon,  was  still  averse  to  restoring  a  family  which 
would  exclude  Maria  Louisa  and  her  son  from  all  hopes 
of  the  succession.  In  these  dispositions  she  was  strength- 
ened by  observing  the  silence  of  all  parts  of  France,  with 
the  solitary  exception  of  Bordeaux,  and  the  obhvion  and 
contempt  into  which  the  cause  and  name  of  the  Bourbons 
had  obviously  fallen.  But  Vitrolles  had  the  address  to 
remove  such  objections.  He  converted  his  mission  of 
inquiry  into  one  of  communication,  and  having  produced 
his  credentials  of  handwriting  or  trinkets,  assured  the  Allies 
that  M.  de  Talleyrand  and  others  had  formed  their  plot, 
were  determined  to  restore  the  Bourbons,  and  anxiously 
expecting  the  armies  at  Paris,  and  a  declaration  in  favor 
of  the  exiled  family.     When  the  armies  arrived,  the  Allies* 

the  proof  of  his  being  confidentially  intrusted  by  persons  connected 
with  Talleyrand  and  his  party  in  Paris.  Any  or  all  of  these  specific 
signs  may  have  been  adopted,  but  it  is  unquestionable  that  they  or 
some  such  were  resorted  to. 

*  Pozzo  di  Borgo  and  others  have  confirmed  this  and  some  other  parts 
of  the  narrative.  The  whole  comes  to  me  indirectly  from  the  Duke 
Dalberg.    I  believe  I  have  related  it  elsewhere  in  these  papers,  but  stet, 

Alexander  had  some  inclination  to  place  Bernadotte  on  the  throne 
of  France  :  several  persons  better  acquainted  with  the  dispositions  of 
Frenchmen  leaned  to  the  Duke  of  Orleans ;  but  Austria  considered 


NAPOLEON  AT  ELBA.  IPl 

were  much  surprised  to  find  no  such  conspiracy  organized, 
and  Talleyrand  no  less  so  that  his  name  had  been  instru- 
mental in  restoring  the  Bourbons.  He  was,  however,  too 
quick-sighted  not  to  make  a  virtue  of  necessity.  The  res- 
toration was  inevitable,  and  he  was  too  adroit  not  to  father 
the  spurious  child  which  had  been  unexpectedly  sworn  to 
him  by  the  prostitute  who  had  conceive4  it. 

At  Elba,  Napoleon  seemed  absorbed  in  domestic  details, 
the  arrangement  of  the  petty  concerns  of  the  place,  and  the 
reception  of  his  English  visitors.  To  several  of  the  latter 
he  spoke  with  earnestness  and  freedom  of  passing  and  past 
events.  The  short  printed  narrative  of  Lord  Ebrington  is 
one  of  the  happiest  and  most  authentic  representations  of 
the  spirit,  character,  and  interest  of  his  conversation.  Sir 
Neil  Campbell  was  strangely  deceived  in  his  estimate  of 
his  general  character,  as  in  his  view  of  his  immediate 
designs.  I  heard  him  myself  declare  that  his  talents  did 
not  seem  to  him  superior  to  those  which  would  be  required 
in  a  sous-prefet !  Some  imagine  that  he  lulled  that  offi- 
cer into  security  by  purposely  concealing*  his  intellectual 
qualifications  as  well  as  his  actual  designs.  It  is  notorious 
that  Sir  Neil  was  overwhelmed  with  surprise  at  his  depart- 
ure from  Porto  Ferraio.     The  ridicule  to  which  his  want 

Napoleon  or  Louis  XVIII.  as  the  sole  alternative,  and  our  Regent, 
though  not  his  ministers,  were  invariably  for  Louis.  See  Appendix 
No.  VII.,  respecting  the  elevation  of  Louis-Philippe  to  the  throne 
in  1830. 

*  I  suspect  Sir  Neil  was  misled  by  his  own  simplicity,  by  the  pre- 
conceived opinions  which  newspapers  and  libels  had  created  in  his 
mind,  and  by  that  propensity  so  common  in  official  men  to  believe  and 
to  circulate  whatever  tends  to  gratify  the  prejudice  or  the  malignity 
of  their  employers. 


392  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 

of  vigilance  exposed  him  had  a  pernicious  effect  afterward 
on  the  nerves  of  Sir  Hudson  Lowe,  and  contributed  to 
induce  that  more  ostensible  jailer  to  adopt  a  system  more 
irksome  to  his  great  prisoner,  and  more  discreditable  to 
England  than  even  the  narrow  policy  of  our  councils  had 
intended. 

There  can  be  little  doubt  that  a  conspiracy  was  forming 
in  the  French  army  at  the  beginning  of  the  year  1815  for 
expelling  the  House  of  Bourbon.  The  leaders,  however, 
neither  invited  nor  intended  to  invite  Napoleon  to  put  him- 
self at  the  head  of  their  party.  He  probably  ascertained 
the  existence  of  the  plot,  and  was  aware  that  there  was  no 
wish  to  concert  it  with  him.  But  encouraged  by  the  re- 
spect his  name  still  inspired  in  the  soldiery,  alarmed  at  his 
own  precarious  situation,  and  of  reports  of  the  designs  at 
the  Congress  of  Vienna,  and  urged  by  the  natural  im- 
patience and  ambition  of  his  character,  he  certainly  landed 
before  any  such  conspiracy  was  ripe,  and  seized  prema- 
turely, and  for  his  own  use,  the  greater  part  of  the  mate- 
rials of  which  any  successful  conspiracy  could  be  formed. 
He  soon  perceived  that  the  strength  of  his  cause  lay  both 
in  a  party  and  in  principles  more  republican  than  he  had 
ever  favored  or  encouraged.  How  far  he  wavered  be- 
tween his  former  system  of  government  and  the  establish- 
ment of  one  more  popular  in  its  spirit  as  well  as  form,  and 
how  far  such  fluctuation  of  counsel,  so  unlike  all  his  former 
conduct,  was  produced  by  change  of  situation  and  char- 
acter, and  ultimately  overwhelmed  him  in  ruin,  are  inter- 
esting inquiries  for  the  historian.  They  would  lead  me  too 
far.  He  felt  his  embarrassment  during  the  hundred  days. 
Count  Mole,  who  is  no  tribune  of  the  people,  told  me  that 


i 
I 


NAPOLEON  DURING  THE  HUNDRED  DAYS.  193 

Napoleon  expressed  great  apprehensions  that  the  repub- 
lican party  would  prevail ;  that  he  spoke  of  scenes  he  had 
witnessed  in  the  revolution  with  disgust  and  emotion  ;  that 
he  drew  with  great  sagacity,  but  with  some  bitterness, 
the  characters  of  the  marshals,  ministers,  and  demagogues 
who  surrounded  him  ;  lamented  the  impossibility  of  raising 
France  to  resistance  against  the  confederates  without  re- 
sorting to  means  which  he  had  always  reprobated  ;*  and 
acknowledged  that  had  he  foreseen  how  much  compliance 
with  the  democratic  party  w^as  necessary  to  his  support, 
he  would  never  have  left  the  Island  of  Elba.  He. added 
that  his  chief  hopes  of  extricating  France  from  her  internal 
and  external  dangers  depended  on  the  cordial  co-operation 
of  such  sober-minded  men  as  my  informant.  From  such  a 
moral  in  the  conclusion,  some  of  my  shrewder  readers  may 
infer,  and  possibly  be  right  in  inferring,  that  the  whole 
conversation  proved  Napoleon's  knowledge  of  individual 
character  much  more  than  his  fears  of  democracy  gener- 
ally, or  at  that  epoch  in  particular.  Whatever  was  his 
object,  he  unquestionably  held  this  language ;  for  the  per- 
son to  whom  he  addressed  it  is  too  distinct  to  forget,  and 
too  correctly  honorable  to  be  capable  of  misrepresentation. 
His  life,  occupations,  health,  and  conversation  in  his 
exile  at  St.  Helena  have  been  so  minutely  and  so  frequent- 
ly described  in  print,  that,  in  preserving  notes  of  what  has 
been  told  me  by  his  inmates  at  Longwood,  I  may  be 
repeating  what  is  well  known  and  undisputed.  He  occa- 
sionally played  at  chess  and  at  billiards,  at  the  first  with 
tolerable  skill,  but  intolerable  rapidity ;  at  the  latter,  neith- 
er with  mace  nor  cue,  but  with  his  hand.  Before  he  had 
*  Qu'il  avait  toujours  desapprouves. 

I 


194 


FOREIGN  KEMINISOENCEa 


regulated  the  distribution  of  his  time,  he  was  very  anxious 
not  to  be  left  between  dinner  and  the  hour  of  retiring  to 
rest.  To  prevent  the  ladies  from  retiring,  be  would  sit 
long  at  table,  exert  himself  to  keep  up  conversation,  and 
sometimes  send  for  books  to  read  aloud  to  the  company. 
He  read  well,  but  be  read  the  same  poems  and  same  plays 
too  frequently.  Among  the  latter,  Zaire  was  bis  favorite 
lecture.  He  slept  himself  when  read  to,  but  be  was  very 
observant  and  jealous  if  others  slept  while  he  read.  He 
watched  his  audience  vigilantly,  and  "Madame  Mon- 
tholon,.  vous  dormez,"  was  a  frequent  ejaculation  in  the 
course  of  reading.  He  was  animated  with  all  that  he  read, 
especially  poetry ;  enthusiastic  at  beautiful  passages,  im- 
patient and  observant  of  faults,  and  full  of  ingenious  and 
lively  remarks  on  style,  composition,  and  story.  He  read 
through  the  Odyssey,  I  presume  in  Dacier's  translation, 
and  the  Bible.  He  could  hardly  get  through  the  first  for 
the  comments  it  excited,  and,  as  he  had  not  been  very  con- 
versant with  the  Old  Testament,  be  was  alternately  sur- 
prised and  delighted,  provoked  and  diverted,  at  the  sub- 
limity and  beauty  of  some  passages,  and  what  appeared  to 
him  the  extravagance  and  absurdity  of  others.  He  ex- 
pressed all  these  emotions  with  great  freedom  and  eager- 
ness ;  and  the  manner  as  well  as  matter  of  his  remarks 
awakened  and  fixed  the  attention  of  his  audience.  In  the 
long  evenings  passed  thus  in  conversation,  reading,  criti- 
cism, and  narrative,  he  not  only  took  a  prominent  part, 
but  was  so  luminous  and  earnest,  and  yet  so  philosophical, 
calm,  and  above  resentment  in  describing  the  events  of  his 
life,  and  drawing  the  portraits  of  those  with  whom  he  had 
passed  it,  that  Madame  Montholon,  with  great  felicity,  com- 


NAPOLEON'S  ENGLISH  READING.  195 


pared  the  sensations  of  the  company  to  those  of  a  future 
state,  in  which  they  were  taking  a  dispassionate  view  of 
the  transactions  of  the  world  in  which  they  had  been  en- 
gaged. Napoleon  was  curious  about  all  new  books  which 
arrived  at  St.  Helena.  Without  understanding  English 
well,  or  speaking  it  at  all,  he  could  make  out  histories  and 
read  newspapers  and  reviews  in  our  language.  He  grew 
so  conversant  in  the  latter,  that  on  the  arrival  of  the  Edin- 
burgh and  Quarterly,  he  made  very  plausible  conjectures 
about  the  authors  of  the  articles  in  each  publication.  That 
on  Warden's  book*  puzzled  and  perplexed  him  exceed- 
ingly, but  did  not  displease  him.  The  anecdotes  of  his 
€arly  life,  derived  through  me  from  Cardinal  Fesch  and 
Louis  Bonaparte,  quite  astonished  him.  "  Where  on  earth 
have  they  been  to  hunt  out  that  ?  but  I  recollect  it. 
Where  on  earth  could  those  English  fellows  get  at  it?" 
His  indefatigable  mind,  which  found  matter  for  inquiry 
and  speculation  in  every  thing,  was  not  exempt  from  the 
failing  to  which  such  active  spirits  are  liable,  of  discover- 
ing more  than  exists,  of  working  upon  plain  materials  not 
susceptible  of  such  refinement,  in  short,  to  use  the  homely 
proverb,  of  seeing  too  far  into  a  mill-stone.  Lady  Holland 
had  prevailed  on  the  Duke  of  Bedford  to  send  Napoleon  a 
book.  He  left  the  choice  of  it  to  her,  and  she  delayed  it 
till  the  day  before  the  ship  was  to  sail.  She  consequently 
requested  a  friend  to  purchase  the  first  well-bound  book 
that  came  to  hand  in  the  bookseller's  shop,  and  as  it  was  a 
Scotch  hand  that  it  came  to,  Robertson's  History  of  Scot- 
land was  naturally  enough  the  book  selected.  "Why  does 
the  Duke  of  Bedford  send  me  the  History  of  Scotland  ? 

*=  It  was  written  by  Mr.  Allen. 


196  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 

He  must  know  that  I  have  read  it.  Oh,  evpTjKa,  he  means 
to  hint  to  me  never  to  acknowledge,  hke  Mary,  Queen 
of  Scots,  the  jurisdiction  of  England."  Another  book, 
Coxe's  life  of  the  Duke  of  Marlborough,  sent  to  him  by 
Lord  Robert  Spenser,  a  descendant  of  that  great  man, 
delighted  him  much.  He  wished  in  his  last  moments  to 
convey  it  as  no  unappropriate  memorial  to  an  English 
regiment  in  the  island,  whose  officers  possessed  a  library, 
and  had  been  remarkably  civil  to  him.  He  requested  Dr. 
Arnott,  their  surgeon,  w^ho  had  attended  him,  to  present 
it ;  but  Dr.  Arnott  was  ordered  by  his  superiors  to  return 
tiie  book,  first,  because  it  had  not  been  transmitted  through 
the  Government  House ;  secondly,  because  it  was  in  the 
name  of  the  Emperor  Napoleon,  not  of  General  Bonaparte. 
Pitiful,  narrow-minded  malignity,  disgraceful  alike  to  the 
government  and  its  agents  ! 

General  Bertrand  had  applied  to  our  Government  for  , 

Folard's  Polybius,  but  it  was  not  furnished.  Napoleon  fl 
was  somewhat  impatient  for  its  arrival,  but  it  was  only 
daring  the  latter  months  of  his  life  that  he  obtained  it,  I 
believe,  from  Lady  Holland.  He  read  it  incessantly,  and 
spoke  of  the  ancient  author  with  great  admiration.  His 
habits  and  regimen  during  his  whole  life,  and  more  par- 
ticularly in  his  exile  at  St.  Helena,  were  singular ;  he  ate 
little  and  rapidly,  dined  early,  and  not  unfrequently  neg- 
lected breakfast  altogether;  he  drank,  when  well,  light 
French  wines,  and  especially  Lunel,  but  never  to  excess. 
In  his  illness,  and  for  some  time  before,  he  lost  his  appetite 
entirely,  though  Lady  Holland  had  the  satisfaction  of 
learning  that  the  confectionery  she  had  sent  him  was 
much  approved.  Indeed,  some  preserves  which  he  called 
**  prun^aux  d^  Madame  Holland,"  were  nearly  the  last  arti- 


NAPOLEON'S  LAST  ILLNESS.  197 

cle  of  food  he  ever  asked  for.  At  St.  Helena,  he  rose  at 
four,  and  throughout  his  Hfe  was  accustomed  to  get  up  for 
an  hour,  if  not  two,  in  the  course  of  the  night ;  and,  as 
he  had  always  two  beds  in  the  room,  was  very  frequently 
found  to  have  changed  them  before  morning.  The  habit 
of  interrupting  his  rest  with  an  interval  of  watchfulness 
was  probably  contracted  during  his  campaigns,  and  it  was 
of  great  use  to  him  when  on  service.  He  explained  and 
directed,  with  a  clear  head,  after  his  first  sleep,  all  the 
general  arrangements  of  the  ensuing  day ;  and  then,  after 
a  second  and  refreshing  repose,  superintended  the  execution 
of  them,  without  the  possibility  of  the  more  ordinary  busi- 
ness interrupting  the  last  orders  necessary  to  be  given. 

Many  curious  details  of  the  decline  of  his  health,  the 
nature  of  his  disease,  and  his  own  sagacious  and  character- 
istic remarks  on  the  cause  and  treatment  of  it,  may  be  col- 
lected from  the  publications  of  his  various  medical  attend- 
ants, among  whom  it  became,  unfortunately,  a  subject  of 
much  painful  controversy.  His  father  had  died  of  a  scir- 
rhus  in  the  pylorus  ;  his  sister,  the  Princess  Borghese,  has 
more  recently  fallen  a  victim  to  a  similar  disease.  It  is 
not  likely  that  the  climate  could  cause  the  disorder ; 
but  the  dampness  of  that  part  of  the  island  which  he 
inhabited,  the  vexation  occasioned  by  exile  and  confine- 
ment, and  the  absence  of  his  family,  and  of  such  assist- 
ance as  he  could  have  commanded  in  Europe,*  may  have 
accelerated  his  death,  and  unquestionably  aggravated  his 
sufferings.     He  was   at  all   times   disposed  to  converse 

*  If  it  be  granted  that  his  disease  was  incurable,  it  can  not  be 
denied  that  any  officer  on  service,  in  the  state  of  health  under  which 
he  labored  for  two  years,  would  have  had  leave  to  return  to  Europe 
for  medical  advice. 


193  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 

on  metaphysical  subjects,  and  curious  in  questioning  well- 
informed  priests  on  the  foundation  and  nature  of  their 
faith.  He  was  consequently  disappointed  on  finding  that  ^^ 
the  two  ecclesiastics  sent  out  to  St.  Helena,  though  select- 
ed by  Cardinal  Fesch,  were  men  of  limited  understandings, 
and  no  reading  at  all.  The  old  man,  Buonavita,  though 
his  adventures  in  Spain,  Mexico,  and  New  York,  might 
afford  some  amusement,  was  grossly  ignorant.  He  told 
Napoleon  that  he  resembled  the  most  able  and  fortunate  of 
all  Roman  generals,  namely  Alexander  the  Great.  Wheth- 
er it  be  true  or  not  that  the  Emperor  condemned  him  for 
that  historical  blunder  to  read  ten  pages  of  Rollin  every 
morning,  and  to  repeat  the  substance  of  his  lesson  to  him,* 
he  was  certainly  indignant  that  so  uninteresting  a  com- 
panion had  been  appointed  to  attend  him. 

Whatever  were  the  religious  sentiments  of  this  extra- 
ordinary man,  such  companions  were  likely  neither  to  fix 
nor  to  shake,  to  sway  nor  to  alter  them.  I  have  been  at 
some  pains  to  ascertain  the  little  that  can  be  known  of  his 
thoughts  on  such  subjects ;  and  though  it  is  not  very  satis- 
factory, it  appears  to  me  worth  recording. 

In  the  early  periods  of  the  revolution,  he,  in  common 
with  many  of  his  conntrymen,  conformed  to  the  fashion  of 
treating  all  such  matters,  both  in  conversation  and  action, 
with  levity  and  even  derision.  In  his  subsequent  career, 
like  most  men  exposed  to  wonderful  vicissitudes,  he  pro- 
fessed, half  in  jest  and  half  in  earnest,  a  sort  of  confidence 
in  fatalism  and  predestination.     But  on  some  solemn  pub- 

*  I  believe  this  story  to  be  a  perversion  of  another  fact.  Napo- 
leon liked  his  younger  chaplain,  and  finding  that  his  education  had 
been  neglected,  recommended  books  to  him,  and  in  some  sort  super- 
intended his  course  of  study. 


NAPOLEOrrS  RELIGIOUS  SENTIMENTS.  199 

lie  occasions,  and  yet  more  in  private  and  sober  discus- 
sion, he  not  only  gravely  disclaimed  and  reproved  infidel- 
ity, but  both  by  actions  and  words  implied  his  convic- 
tion that  a  conversion  to  religious  enthusiasm  might  befall 
himself  or  any  other  man.  He  had  more  than  tolerance — 
he  had  indulgence  and  respect — for  extravagant  ascetic  no- 
tions of  religious  duty.  He  grounded  that  feeling  not  on 
their  soundness  or  their  truth,  but  on  the  uncertainty  of 
what  our  minds  may  be  reserved  for,  on  the  possibility  of 
our  being  prevailed  upon  to  admit  and  even  to  devote  our- 
selves to  tenets  which  at  first  excite  our  derision.  It  has 
been  observed  that  there  was  a  tincture*  of  Italian  super- 
stition in  his  character,  a  sort  of  conviction  from  reason 
that  the  doctrines  of  revelation  were  not  true,  and  yet  a 
persuasion,  or  at  least  an  apprehension,  that  he  might  live 
to  think  them  so.  He  was  satisfied  that  the  seeds  of  belief 
were  deeply  sown  in  the  human  heart.  It  was  on  that 
principle  that  he  permitted  and  justified,  though  he  did  not 
dare  to  authorize  the  revival  of  La  Trappe  f  and  other  au- 
stere ordei's.  He  contended  that  they  might  operate  as  a 
safety-valve  for  the  fanatical  and  visionary  ferment  which 
would  otherwise  burst  forth  and  disturb  society.  In  his 
remarks  on  the  death  of  DurocJ  and  in  the  reasons  he 
alleged  against  suicide,  both  in  calm  and  speculative  dis- 
cussion and  in  moments  of  strong  emotion  (such  as  occur- 
red at  Fontainebleau  §  in  1814),  he  implied  a  belief  both  in 
fatality  and  providence. 

*  Pasquier,  Stan.  Girardin,  an<3  others.  f  Mole. 

t  See  Lord  Ebrington's  narrative. 

§  General  Sebastian!  and  Comte  Flahault :  aussi  ne  suis-je  pas 
tout-d-fait  etranger  a  des  idees  religieuses,  added  he,  after  assigning 
worldly  reasons  for  not  killing  himself. 


200  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 

In  the  programme  of  his  coronation,  a  part  of  the  cere- 
mony was  to  consist  in  his  taking  the  communion.  But 
when  the  plan  was  submitted  to  him,  he,  to  the  surprise 
of  those  who  had  drawn  it,  was  absolutely  indignant*  at 
the  suggestion.  "No  man,"  he  said,  "had  the  means  of 
knowing,  or  had  the  right  to  say,  when  or  where  he  would 
take  the  Sacrament,  or  whether  he  would  or  not."  On 
this  occasion,  he  added  that  he  would  not,f  nor  did  he  ! 

There  is  some  mystery  about  his  conduct  in  similar  re- 
spects at  St.  Helena,  and  during  the  last  days  of  his  life. 
He  certainly  had  mass  celebrated  in  his  chapel  while  he 
was  well,  and  in  his  bedroom  when  ill.  But  though  I 
have  reason  to  believe  that  the  last  Sacraments  were 
actually  administered  to  him  privately,  a  few  days  before 
his  death,  and  probably  after  confession,  yet  Count  Mon- 
tholon,  from  whom  I  derive  indirectly  my  information, 
also  stated  that  he  received  Napoleon's  earnest  and  dis- 
tinct directions  to  conceal  all  the  preliminary  prepara- 
tions for  that  melancholy  ceremony  from  all  his  other 
companions,  and  even  to  enjoin  the  priest,  if  questioned, 
to  say  he  acted  by  Count  Montholon's  orders,  but  had  no 
knowledge  of  the  Emperor's  wishes. 

It  seems  as  if  he  had  some  desire  for  such  assurance  as 
the  Church  could  give,  but  yet  was  ashamed  to  own  it. 
He  knew  that  some  at  St.  Helena,  and  more  in  France, 
would  deem  his  recourse  to  such  consolation  infirmity  ; 
perhaps  he  deemed  it  so  himself.  Religion  may  sing  her 
triumph,  Philosophy  exclaim,  "pauvre  humanite,"  more 

*  Gallois,  confirmed  by  many  others. 

f  Some  attributed  this  repugnance  to  conform,  to  his  fear  of  tbQ 
army,  others  to  a  secret  and  conscientious  aversion  to  what  he  deem-' 
ed  in  his  heart  a  profanation. 


I 


NAPOLEON'S  RELIGIOUS  SENTIMENTS.  201 


impartial  skepticism  despair  of  discovering  the  motive,  but 
truth  and  history  must,  I  believe,  acknowledge  the  fact. 
M.  de  Talleyrand,  who,  on  hearing  of  his  death,  spoke  of 
his  mental  endowments,  as  has  been  related  above,*  added 
the  following  remarks : 

.  "  His  career  is  the  most  extraordinary  that  has  occurred 
for  one  thousand  years.  He  committed  three  capital 
faults,  and  to  them  his  fall,  scarce  less  extraordinary  than 
his  elevation,  is  to  be  ascribed — Spain,  Russia,  and  the 
Pope.  I  say  the  Pope;  for  his  coronation,  the  acknowl- 
edgment by  the  spiritual  head  of  Christendom  that  he,  a 
little  lieutenant  of  Corsica,  was  the  chief  sovereign  of 
Europe,  from  whatever  motive  it  proceeded,  was  the  most 
striking  consummation  of  glory  that  could  happen  to  an 
individual.  After  adopting  that  mode  of  displaying  his 
greatness  and  crowning  his  achievements,  he  should  never, 
for  objects  comparatively  insignificant,  have  stooped  to 
vex  and  persecute  the  same  Pontiff.  He  thereby  outraged 
the  feehngs  of  the  very  persons  whose  enmity  had  been 
softened,  and  whose  imagination  had  been  dazzled  by  that 
brilliant  event.  Such  were  his  capital  errors.  Those 
three  apart,  he  committed  few  others  in  policy,  wonder- 
fully few,  considering  the  multiplicity  of  interests  he  had 
to  manage,  and  the  extent,  importance,  and  rapidity  of  the 
events  in  which  he  was  engaged.  He  was  certainly  a 
great,  an  extraordinary  man,  nearly  as  extraordinary  in 
his  qualities  as  in  his  career  ;  at  least,  so  upon  reflection  I, 
who  have  seen  him  near  and  much,  am  disposed  to  con- 

*  On  one  occasion,  Talleyrand  said  of  him  to  me  emphatically  '*  il 
6toit  mal  eleve  ;"  and  he  more  than  once  repeated  and  maintained,  what 
I  fear  is  but  too  well  founded,  that  he  had  very  little  regard  for  truth. 

T* 


202  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 

sider  him.  He  was  clearly  the  most  extraordinary  man  I 
ever  saw,  and  I  believe  the  most  extraordinary  man  that 
has  lived  in  our  age,  or  for  many  ages." 

Another  and  perhaps  a  more  fatal  fault  than  any  of  the 
three  so  justly  imputed  to  him  by  Talleyrand  was  ac- 
knowledged* by  Napoleon  himself  in  his  conversations  at 
Elba.  This  was  the  neglecting  to  make  peace  after  the 
victories  of  Lutzen  and  Bautzen,  in  1813.  Those  successes 
would  have  enabled  him  to  sue  for  peace,  much  more  to 
accept  or  to  grant  it  with  honor  and  a  good  grace.  He 
might  even  then  have  obtained  and  almost  commanded 
terms  which  would  have  left  him  the  greatest  potentate  in 
Europe,  and  one  of  the  most  successful  conquerors  modern 
history  can  record.  But  he  thought  himself  stronger  than 
he  was ;  and  found  himself,  as  he  admitted,  wrong  in  his 
calculations.  Such  mistakes  and  such  admissions  of  them 
perhaps  make  him  yet  more  extraordinary,  as  unquestion- 
ably the  opportunity  which  his  reverses  and  his  exile  in 
Elba  and  in  St.  Helena  gave  him  of  reviewing  and  dis- 
cussing his  whole  conduct,  of  which  he  so  amply  availed 
himself,  must  and  will  render  his  life  more  interesting  and 
more  instructive  to  posterity  than  that  of  any  great  military 
prince  since  Julius  Csesar. 

*  To  Mr.  Fazakerley,  a  man  of  strict  veracity  and  accurate  memory 
who  saw  him  in  Elba,  in  1814,  and  who  has  often  related  this  part 
of  his  conversation  to  me.  Fazakerley,  on  being  pressed  by  him  to 
make  free  criticisms  on  his  conduct,  expressed  his  surprise  that  he  had 
not  made  peace  at  that  epoch.  "  Mais  je  me  croyais  assez  fort  (said 
he)  pour  ne  pas  la  faire,  et  je  me  suis  trompe,  sans  cela  c'etait  assure- 
ment  le  moment  de  faire  la  paix." 


APPENDIX. 


No.  I. 
(See  page  23.) 

Lady  Holland  and  Mr.  Allen  saw  in  1825  the  original  of 
this  will,  in  the  King's  own  hand,  at  the  Hotel  Soubise,  where 
it  was  kept  together  with  other  archives,  and  the  celebrated  iron 
closet  found  in  the  Tuileries  in  August,  1792. 

The  authenticity  of  the  will  has  sometimes  been  disputed,  but 
there  seems  no  doubt  that  it  is  genuine.  Indeed  it  was  pub- 
lished immediately  on  that  Prince's  execution  by  his  enemies 
and  accusers  J  not  by  his  friends  and  partisans.  I  remember 
Talleyrand  explained  this  fact  to  me  in  much  detail,  and  made 
a  very  just  remark  thereupon,  that  it  was  a  strong  proof  of  the 
blindness  and  zeal  of  the  Jacobin  party,  or  of  the  state  of  ex- 
altation and  republican  fanaticism  of  the  public  mind  at  the 
time,  when  such  a  document,  entirely, in  the  power  of  the 
municipality,  was  eagerly  published  instead  of  being  suppress- 
ed, from  a  notion  that  the  circulation  of  it  would  injure  the 
cause  of  Royalty,  and  expose  the  memory  and  principles  of  the 
King  to  the  derision  of  his  readers.  Strange  indeed  must  have 
been  the  infatuation  of  those  who  deemed  such  sentiments  dis- 
creditable to  the  writer ! 

The  expression  attributed  to  Abbe  Edgeworth  of  "  Fits  de  St. 
Louis,  montez  au  ciel,"  when  the  unfortunate  Prince  hesitated 
in  mounting  the  scaffold,  was  an  entire  fiction.  Abbe  Edge- 
worth  openly  and  honestly  acknowledged  he  never  remembered 
using  it,  and  it  was  invented  at  a  supper  that  very  evening. 


204 


FOREIGN  EEMmiSCENCES. 


No.  II. 

(See  page  70.) 

19th  Seplemher,  1838. 
I  saw  the  Prince  of  the  Peace  much  altered  in  appearance, 
but  still  the  same  character  of  countenance.  Good-humored, 
self-satisfied,  somewhat  jovial  and  hearty,  in  his  bad  French 
and  chuckling  voice,  and  an  arch  expression  in  his  eyes,  com- 
plained much  of  the  ingratitude  of  the  world,  and  included, 
somewhat  unreasonably,  in  his  censure  that  of  the  Fi-ench  gov- 
ernment from  which  he  receives  his  only  subsistence,  scanty 
indeed,  but  still  a  subsistence,  5000  francs  =z  d£200  per  annum; 
but  he  contrasted  it  with  the  various  sums  he  had  in  Spain 
allowed  to  the  emigrant  and  exiled  princes  and  noblemen  of 
France.  He  complained  bitterly  of  the  Tudo,  to  whom  he  said 
he  had  been  attached  from  his  youth,  to  whom  he  had  sacri- 
ficed every  thing,  and  for  whom  he  had  incurred  the  (I  think  he 
said  ludicrous  or  absurd)  imputation  of  bigamy,  and  whom  all 
the  world  knew  he  had  actually  married  after  the  death  of  his 
first  wife,  for  the  purpose  of  legitimating  her  son.  He  had  set- 
tled on  her  all  he  had  in  the  world  out  of  Spain,  and  she  had 
left  him  and  taken  the  whole,  so  that  he  was  reduced  to  absolute 
penury,  and  lived  entirely  on  the  small  pension  Luis  Felipe 
allowed  him ;  for  as  to  his  estates  and  encomiendas,  they  had 
been  distributed  in  a  strange  way.  His  Soto  di  Roma,  at  least 
all  that  was  given  to  him  of  it  by  Charles  IV.,  had  been  be- 
stowed, as  a  national  mark  of  gratitude  and  reward  on  the 
Duke  of  Wellington,  who,  he  said,  had  earned  it  or  any  thing 
else ;  but  yet,  as  he  knew  of  no  sentence  or  judgment  of  law 
depriving  Jiim  of  it,  and  of  no  proofs  that  disqualified  him  from 
holding  it,  he  could  not  but  consider  it  as  a  despojo :  with  re- 
gard to  the  hienes  lihres  {les  hiens  libres)  appertaining  to  it  (by 
which  I  understood  some  lands  and  tenements  contiguous  or  in 


APPENDIX.  305 


the  neighborhood  which  he  had  purchased  with  his  own  money) 
they  had  been,  by  some  arbitrary,  but  he  believed  formal  act 
of  one  of  the  governments,  settled  on  his  daughter  by  the  Bour- 
bon wife.  As  to  the  Albufera  and  his  encomiendas,  those  had 
been  conferred  on  the  Infante  Don  Francisco;  so  that  whenever 
he  claimed  his  lands  he  found  some  one  in  the  enjoyment  of 
them  whom  he  had  little  chance  of  dispossessing.  He  rather 
laughed  at  this  and  his  own  helplessness,  but  he  spoke  with 
more  bitterness  of  the  Tudo's  ingratitude,  and  with  some  indig- 
nation and  misplaced  vanity  of  the  Liberals  depriving  him  of  the 
title  Generalisimo,  or  at' least  of  Captain-General,  he  being,  he 
said,  in  fact  the  oldest  Captain-General  of  Spain.  He  said  that 
in  the  subsequent  volumes  of  his  memoirs,  he  should  draw  a 
contrast  between  Spain  under  Charles  IV.,  and  Spain  under 
the  Liberals.  He  had  no  great  complaint  of  Napoleon ;  he  had 
always  been  his  enemy,  and  Napoleon  had  offered  him  fair 
terms  of  reconciliation,  if  he  had  thought  it  either  honorable  or 
possible  to  have  accepted  of  them.  In  his  intercourse  with 
him  at  Bayonne,  he  had  indeed  attempted  to  seduce  or  intimi- 
date him  into  a  recognition  of  Joseph,  or  either  then  or  subse- 
quently in  conversation  had  told  him,  that  from  a  further  knowl- 
edge of  Spain  he  had  discovered  that  "  I'on  I'avoit  trompe  k  son 
egard ;"  for  that  a  man  could  not  for  near  twenty  years  have 
governed  by  his  own  authority  a  country  composed  of  such  a 
variety  of  institutions,  of  passions,  of  languages,  races,  habits, 
and  views  as  he  now  found  Spain  to  be,  without  being  a  re- 
markable man.  He  said  that  Lucien,  with  whom  he  was  once 
intimate,  had  somewhat  unkindly  declined  all  intercourse  with 
him,  because,  as  Lucien  said,  he  had  not  menage  (he  pronounc- 
ed it  menasse)  the  Emperor  in  his  memoirs.  The  Prince  of  the 
Peace  observed  that  it  was  no  business  of  his  to  exalt  or  to  cen- 
sure Napoleon ;  it  was  notorious  that  they  had  few  relations, 
but  those  of  hostility  rather  than  friendship,  and  that  in  truth  he 


.'^'    'fW\w.\>  "b 


208 


FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 


*v 


had  recounted  those  affecting  Napoleon's  conduct  without  pas- 
sion, and  with  a  greater  disposition  to  soften  rather  than  to 
heighten  such  passages  as  might  lead  to  unfavorable  interpreta- 
tions. I  seized  this  opportunity  of  observing  that  his  memoirs 
were  generally,  and  I  supposed  with  reference  to  Bonaparte  as 
well  as  others,  more  open  to  the  reproach  of  being  either  too 
laudatory  or  too  scrupulous  and  official  in  relating  facts  injurious 
to  the  memory  of  the  actors,  than  to  that  of  calumny  and  asper- 
ity, and  I  ventured  to  add  that  they  had  lost  some  of  the  interest 
he  might  have  given  to  them  by  his  relating  rather  than  explain- 
ing public  acts  and  documents  ;  whereas  in  the  Court  of  Spain 
he  must  hrfve  witnessed  scenes,  such  as  would  have  made  the 
fortune  of  any  memoir  writer  a  la  Frangaise.  I  asked  if  the. 
story  of  the  long  period  between  the  celebration  and  consum- 
mation of  Ferdinand's  marriage  was  true  :  he  nodded  an  assur- 
ance of  its  authenticity,  but  did  not  dwell  on  the  subject,  or 
even  on  that  of  Ferdinand's  conspiracy  at  the  Escurial,  of  which 
Charles  IV.  had  given  me  such  curious  details.  He  said  that 
I  was  right  in  supposing  that  his  great  delicacy  had  diminished 
the  interest  taken  in  his  book,  and  injured  the  sale ;  that  he 
thought  he  should  be  less  fastidious  in  the  volumes  on  which  he 
was  now  occupied  ;  that  he  had  not  come  to  the  insurrection 
of  Aranjuez,  but  it  would  be  in  the  next  or  following  volume. 
He  spoke  with  less  bitterness  of  Ferdinand,  and  with  more  of 
Don  Carlos,  than  I  expected.  He  acquiesced,  indeed,  in  the 
somewhat  unmeasured  epithets  with  which  I  stigmatized  Fer- 
dinand's character  and  conduct ;  but  when  I  said  that  celui-ci, 
meaning  Carlos,  though  a  devot  and  a  bigot,  was  "plus  honnete 
homme,"  he  said,  How  can  any  man  deserve  the  title  of  "  hon- 
nete," who  would  be  ready,  at  the  dictation  of  any  silly  or 
wicked  beast  of  a  priest  or  friar,  to  stab  his  best  friend,  or  to 
carry  a  torch  to  light  a  pile  to  burn  father,  mother,  brother, 
wife,  child,  or  all  his  dearest  connections  1    He  might  not  think 


APPENDIX.  207 


this  dishonest  or  wrong,  but  all  that  the  world  more  justly 
dreaded  or  hated,  he  had  the  faculty  of  thinking  right,  and  to 
the  utmost  of  his  power  of  carrying  into  execution.     He  said 

Spain  was  in  a  dreadful  condition ;  that  Don  Antonio  de  M , 

a  man  of  worth  and  letters,  whom  I  had  known  at  Madrid,  had 
lately  written  him  word  that  there  was  no  law,  no  authority,  no 
safety  in  the  country ;  and  that  though  he  knew  of  no  prohibi- 
tion against  his  (the  Prince  of  Peace's)  return,  he  could  not  say 
that  it  would  either  be  prudent  or  according  to  law  that  he 
should  do  so,  and  that  even  if  there  were  a  positive  law  to  say 
he  might,  he  did  not  know  how  he  could  avail  himself  of  it  with 
any  security,  or  what  road  he  would  advise  him  to  take.  He 
said  he  had  been  reduced  to  great  distress  and  degradation; 
but  I  found  his  spirits  less  depressed  and  his  conversation  more 
natural  and  frank  than  I  expected.  I  asked  if  he  saw  Don 
Francisco,  and  his  manner  of  saying  "  no"  convinced  me  that 
that  Prince,  who  is  notoriously  his  son,  had  made  no  advances 
to  him,  for  he  somewhat  earnestly  explained  that  it  did  not  be- 
come him  to  seek  his  protection,  and  enlarged  on  the  oppor- 
tunities he  had  of  knowing  the  Infanta  before  her  marriage  at 
Rome,  and  talking  of  the  beauty  of  her  mother,  Isabella,  Queen 
of  Naples,  who  was  in  all  senses,  I  believe,  the  own  sister  of 
her  son-in-law,  Francisco. 

Soon  after  he  left  me,  I  met  on  the  landing-place  of  the  hotel 
stairs  a  dark  and  somewhat  stately  lady,  evidently  of  a  southern 
climate,  carried  by  two  or  three  servants  on  a  footstool  to  the 
story  above  our  apartment,  and,  on  inquiry,  I  found  it  was  the 
Duchesse  de  Ineca  (at  least  so  called),  who  is  the  daughter  of 
the  Prince  of  the  Peace,  and  issue  of  his  marriage  with  the 
Bourbon  Infanta  and  Princess,  and  who,  as  above  related, 
possesses  no  inconsiderable  portion  of  his  landed  property. 
But  she  neither  allows  him  a  sixpence  out  of  them,  or  keeps 
up  any  intercourse  with  him.    She  is  married  to  a  Roman 


208 


FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 


4 


prince ;  but  his  royal  consort's  children  and  connections  seem 
to  treat  him  with  the  same  insensibility,  harshness,  and  cruelty 
as  his  mistress  and  wife,  the  Tudo,  and  all  that  depend  on  her. 
She  is  living  in  comparative  splendor  at  Madrid,  while  her  hus- 
band is  training  a  miserable  existence  as  a  pensioner  or  almost 
beggar  in  Paris,  surrounded,  by  relations,  acknowledged  or  un- 
acknowledged children,  grandchildren,  and  what  not — Infants, 
Princesses,  Duchesses,  etc.,  etc.,  not  one  of  whom  condescends 
to  take  the  slightest  notice  of  him,  or  show  the  least  tenderness, 
regard,  or  interest  about  one  to  whom  some  owe  their  station 
and  riches,  and  all,  more  or  less,  their  very  existence !  A 
strange  name  and  fate 

"To  point  a  moral  or  adorn  a  tale." 


No.  III. 

(See  page  95.) 

Godoy,  in  his  "  Memorias"  (torn.  iv.  p.  431),  has  inserted  both 
letters,  as  follows : 

Copia  literal  de  la  carta  que  ?ne  dirigid  Lord,  Holland  despues 
del fallecimiento  de  Carlos  IV. 

Excelentisimo  senor  y  muy  estimado  amigo, 
Al  punto  que  supe  el  triste  acontecimiento  que  nos  han  co- 
municado  los  papeles  y  recientes  noticias  de  Roma,  me  acorde 
de  la  conversacion  que  tuvimos  la  ultima  vez  que  tuve  el  honor 
de  verle  en  Verona,  y  me  ful  a  ver  ^  los  ministros  a  fin  de  in- 
formarme  de  si  pondrian  dificultad  en  que  V.  tomase  su  resi- 
dencia  aqui,  en  caso  de  que  lo  juzgase  conveniente.  De  resultas 
tengo  la  satisfaccion  de  asegurarle  que  no  pondran  impediment© 
alguno  ni  a  su  desembarque  ni  a  su  permanencia  aqui.  No  me 
han  dado  por  escrito  esta  su  determinacion,  porque  no  quieren 
que  semejante  paso  pueda  mirarse  corao  una  especie  de  convite 
hecho  a  V.,  sino  como  una  contestacion  sencilla  a  una  pregunta 


APPENDIX.  209 


hecha  por  un  amigo,  que  por  tal  me  hacen  el  honor  de  con- 
tarrae. 

Por  lo  demas,  si  V.  lo  juzgase  conveniente,  puede  sin  reparo 
alguno  venirse  a  Inglaterra,  adonde  vivira  sin  sufrir  molestia 
alguna,  como  otro  cualquier  extrangero,  aunque  bajo  una  ley 
que  da  poder  d  nuestros  ministros  a  obligar  a  cualquiera  de 
ellos  a  salir  del  reino,  si  asi  lo  considerasen  necessario  a  la 
quietud  publica.  Pero  esta  ley,  puede  V.  estar  cierto  que  no 
sera  usada  por  ninguna  preocupacion  nacida  de  acontecimi- 
entos  politicos  ya  pasados.  Nuestros  ministros  tienen  empeno 
en  manifestar  que  no  la  emplean  contra  ninguno  que  no  se 
mezcla  en  negocios  politicos,  y  como  me  aseguran  que  no 
pondrian  ningun  impedimento  d  su  disembarque,  estoy  certlsimo 
de  que  la  tal  ley  no  perturbara  su  quietud  cuando  se  halle  en 
este  pais. 

Aunque  nada  se  de  sus  planes  y  determinacion  de  V.  para  lo 
porvenir,  me  ha  parecido  que  acaso  le  sera  a  V.  util  el  saber 
que  en  cualquier  acontecimiento  tiene  V.  un  asilo  abierto  en 
este  pais.  Ojala  que  nada  adverse  le  obligue  a  V.  §,  ello ! 
Pero  en  cualquier  case,  tendre  la  satisfaccion  de  haber  cum- 
plido  con  un  deber  de  gratitud  por  las  atenciones  que  he  debido 
a  v.,  y  especialmente  por  la  generosa  clemencia  con  que,  eu 
1805,  a  instancia  mia,  salvo  V.  la  vida  del  infeliz  Powell.  Este 
favor  esta  tan  vivaraente  impreso  en  mi  memoria,  que  no  puedo 
menos  de  aprovecharme  de  la  primera  ocasion  que  se  ofrece, 
para  mostrar  mi  agradecimiento.  Con  sinceros  deseos  de  la 
felicidad  de  V.  quedo  su  obligado  y  fiel  amigo, 

Q.S.M.B. 

V.  Holland. 

En  Londres,  30  dt  enero  de  1819. 

P.D.  Una  carta  dirigida  ^  Holland  House,  Kensington^ 
London t  me  halla  siempre. 


.  ■) 


210 


FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 


Copia  literal  de  mi  respuesta. 

Roma,  24  defebrero  de  1819. 
Milord  y  mi  muy  araado  amigo, 

La  carta  con  que  V.  me  favorece  de  30  de  enero  es  la  mayor 

preuba  de  su  amistad  y  la  mas  rele  vante  demonstracion  de  la  grand- 

eza  de  su  alma.     Si,  amigo  mio,  puedo  con  verdad  y  con  razon 

querellarme  de  los  hombres,  asegur^ndole  que  entre  el  numero 

inmenso  de  personas  a  quienes  he  rendido  servicios  singulares, 

una  sola  no  he  encontrado  que  haya  correspondido  a  los  senti- 

mientos  de  nobleza  que  distinguen  al  hombre  honrado  del  debil; 

todos,  lodos  han  enmudecido  al  verme  perseguido  por  la  suerte, 

y  solo  han  recurrido  a  mi  los  que  necesitaban  nuevos  socorros 

de  mi  liberalidad ;  este  es  el  mundo,  y  tal  lo  conocia ;  pero  la 

prueba  ha  sido   ciiiel.      Puedo    no   obstante   lisonjearme   de 

poseer  un  bien  singular,  ya  que  el  respetable  milord  Holland 

me  dispensa  su  amistad;  agradezco  pues  amado  amigo,  todo 

cuando  ha  ejecutado  luego  que  llego  a  su  noticia  la  ultima  des- 

gracia  que  me  aflige,  y  si  las  circunstancias  del  dia  no  variaren 

mi  suerte  mejorandola,  seguire  el  camino  que  mi  amigo  me  ha 

franqueado ;   sere  feliz  si  algun  dia  puedo  k  viva  voz  demo- 

strarle  mi    gratitud,  y  entre  tanto  concluyo  asegurandole   la 

sincera  amistad  y  respeto  de  su  afectisimo  servidor, 

Q.L.B.L.M. 

El  Principe  de  la  Paz. 

No.  IV. 
(See  page  124.) 

The  following  is  the  copy  of  an  anonymous  letter  addressed 
to  Lady  Holland,  to  announce  the  death  of  Napoleon : 

Bonaparte  est  mort  le  5  Mai  d'un  abces  d  Testomac ;  la  nou- 
velle  officielle  en  est  arrivee  aujourd'hui. 
Ce  5  Juillet,  1821. 
Addressed  outside  "  Lady  Holland." 


APPENDIX.  211 


No.  V. 
(See  page  134.) 

The  following  nine  letters,  referring  to  the  circumstances 
connected  with  the  imprisonment  of  Napoleon  at  St.  Helena, 
are  here  inserted  in  their  order  of  date. 

My  Loud, 
C'est  vers  vous  que  la  justice  et  I'infortune  doivent  tourner 
leurs  regards  quand  elles  ont  besoin  d'un  noble  appui ;  j'etais 
aupres  de  I'Empereur  Napoleon  lorsque  vous  elevates  la  voix 
dans  votre  Parlement  pour  reclamer  au  nom  de  I'honneur  de 
votre  nation  ce  que  I'humanite,  ce  que  le  droit  des  gens  auroi- 
ent  du  prescrir  aux  ministres  de  Sa  Majeste  Britannique ;  elle 
retentit  jusqu'a  lui  cette  voix  genereuse,  et  porta  dans  son  coeur 
les  plus  douces  consolations.  Puis-je  me  flatter  que  ces  memes 
ministres  accueilliront  la  demande  que  j'ai  ete  charge  de  faire 
pour  obtenir  le  remplacement  de  Monsieur  de  Montholon,  dans 
le  cas  prevu  alors  et  realise  depuis,  ou  sa  sant«  I'obligeroit  a 
quitter  I'Empereur  ?  La  chance  la  plus  favorable  pour  moi 
est  de  compter  sur  votre  intervention.  Lorsque  j'ai  quitte  Ste 
Helene,  Monsieur  de  Montholon  etait  comme  moi  attaque  de 
la  raaladie  du  foie  qui  me  forfeit  d  m'en  eloigner.  Son  de- 
vouement  pour  I'Empereur  Ta  seul  empeche  de.  me  suivre ; 
mais  ce  que  je  craignois  est  arrive  j  il  m'ecrit  que  son  mal  s'est 
accru,  et  qu'apres  avoir  fait  usage  des  remedes  les  plus  ener- 
giques,  son  etat  est  devenu  si  alarmant  que  sans  un  prompt 
retour  en  Europe,  ses  jours  sont  dans  un  imminent  peril ;  mais 
comme  il  lui  serait  penible  de  quitter  celui,  a  qui  il  est  devenu 
necessaire,  sans  avoir  la  certitude  d'etre  remplace  par  quel- 
qu'un  qui  fut  en  etat  de  se  livrer  aux  occupations  du  cabinet, 
il  me  renouvelle  les  ordres  que  j'avais  deja  recus  a  cet  egard. 
Parmi  les  personnes  nouvellement  ai'iivees  a  Longwood,  au- 


212 


FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 


cune  n'est  en  etat  d'ecrire  le  Francois  qu'elles  parlent  a-peine  ; 
I'Empereur  a  absolument  besoin  d'un  homme  qui  non  seulfe- 
ment  ait  sa  confiance,  mais  qui  sache  le  comprendre.  C'est  la 
seule  consolation  qui  lui  reste,  et  il  n'est  que  trop  a  craindre 
que  de  long  temps  il  ne  lui  en  soit  accordee  d'autre.  C'est 
aiin  d'obtenir  pour  cet  homme  destine  a  des  titres  si  delicats,  si 
importans,  les  permissions  necessaires  que  je  me  suis  adres- 
see  a  Lord  Bathurst  ;  je  n'ai  pas  essuye  de  refus  :  mais  il 
ne  s'est  point  explique  sur  ma  demande  que  j'avais  comprise 
dans  d'autres  objets  sur  lesquels  il  m'a  repondu.  Si  son 
silence  devait  m'annoncer  I'intention  de  I'ecarter,  j'ose  comp- 
ter sur  vous.  My  Lord,  pour  la  faire  sortir  do  I'oubli  au- 
quel  il  I'aurait  condamnee.  Dans  un  pays  ou  I'autorite  des 
ministres  est  soumise  a  I'opinion  publique,  ou  de  respectables 
organes  de  cette  opinion  peuvent  leur  demander  compte  de 
leurs  actes  si  le  ministere  se  tait,  il  est  doux  d'avoir  la  certi- 
tude que  les  amis  de  la  patrie,  les  honorables  soutiens  de  la 
gloire  Britannique  ne  se  tairont  pas  ;  et  sur  qui  cette  confi- 
ance peut-elle  Tnieux  se  reposer  que  sur  Lord  Holland  1 

J'ai   I'honneur  d'etre,  My  Lord,  votre  tres  humble  et  tres 
obeissante  servante, 

Vassal  de  Montholon. 

Bruxelles  31  Janvier,  1820. 


Stanhope  Street,  February  15th,  1820. 
My  DEAR  Lord, 
If  I  thought  that  Count  Montholon's  life  depended  upon  his 
departure  from  St.  Helena,  and  his  departure  on  some  person 
proceeding  from  Europe  to  replace  him,  you  will,  I  hope,  do 
me  the  justice  to  believe  that  there  must  have  been  a  very 
cogent  reason  indeed  to  have  made  me  doubt  of  giving  my  con- 
sent.    But  the  fact  is,  I  do  not  think  that  his  departure  depend* 


AFPENDIX.        s  213 


on  this.  There  is  nothing  in  the  various  communications  which 
have  passed  on  the  intended  departure  of  Count  Montholon, 
which  shows  it.  Even  if  he  had  decided  not  to  leave  St.  He- 
lena until  a  secretary  should  be  about  the  person  of  Bona- 
parte, the  object  is  accomplished.  The  priest  sent  out  was 
selected  by  Cardinal  Fesch,  according  to  the  instructions  given 
to  his  Eminence  by  Bonaparte  for  the  selection  of  his  priest, 
and  these  instructions  were,  as  you  may  imagine,  more  par- 
ticular as  to  his  civil,  than  to  his  religious  qualifications. 

I  believe  this  application  of  Madame  Montholon  to  be 
nothing  but  (to  use  a  very  vulgar  expression)  a  mere  fetch, 
more  connected  possibly  with  the  opposition  between  Bertrand 
and  Montholon  (for  we  two,  my  dear  Lord,  are  not  I  hope 
half  so  bitterly  opposed  to  each  other)  than  with  any  thing 
else. 

What  I  will  do,  however,  will  be  this :  I  will  write  to  Sir 
Hudson  to  communicate  to  Bonaparte  that  if  he  shall  express 
any  wish  for  any  person  from  Europe  to  replace  either  of  these 
gentlemen  (for  they  are  both  in  fact  upon  the  wing,  but  watch- 
ing each  other).  Cardinal  Fesch  or  the  Princess  Borghese  shall 
be  employed  in  the  business.  ) 

I  am  ever  yours,  my  dear  Lord,  very  sincerely, 

(Signed)  Bathurst. 

I  must  leave  it  to  you  to  give  the  substance  of  my  letter  to 
Madame  Montholon,  in  a  way  not  to  offend  her.  She  is,  I  be- 
lieve, a  veiy  clever  woman.  ^ 

LoNGWooD,  le  2  SeptembrCj  1820. 
Milord, 

J'ai  eu  I'honneur  de  vous  ecrire  le  25  Juin  1819,  pour  vous 
faire  connaitre  I'etat  de  sante  de  I'Empereur  Napoleon,  at- 
taque  d'une  hepathie  chronique  depuis  le  mois  d'Octobre  1817. 


214 


FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 


A  la  fin  de  Septembre  dernier  est  arrive  le  Docteur  Antomar- 
chi,  qui  lu  i  a  donne  des  soins  ;  il  en  a  d'abord  eprouve  quel- 
que  soulagement ;  mais,  depuis,  le  docteur  a  declare,  comme 
il  resulte  de  son  journal  et  de  son  bulletin,  que  le  raalade  est 
venu  a  un  etat  tel  que  les  rem^des  ne  peuvent  plus  lutter  con- 
tra la  malignite  du  climat,  qu'il  a  besoin  des  eaux  minerales, 
que  tout  le  temps  qu'il  demeure  dans  ce  sejour  ne  sera  qu'une 
penible  agonie,  qu'il  ne  pent  eprouver  de  soulagement  que  par 
son  retour  en  Europe,  ses  forces  etant  epuisees  par  cinq  annees 
de  sejour  dans  cet  afFreux  climat,  piive  de  tout,  en  proie  aux 
plus  mauvais  traitemens.  - 

L'Empereur  Napoleon  me  charge  de  vous  demander  d'etre 
transfere  dans  un  climat  europeen,  comme  le  seul  moyen  de 
diminuer  les  douleurs-  auxquelles  il  est  en  proie.  J'ai  I'hon- 
neur  d'etre,  Milord,  de  votre  Excellence. 

Le  tres  humble  et  obeissant  serviteur. 

Le  Compte  Bertrand. 


P.  S.  J'avais  eu  I'honneur  d'envoyer  cette  lettre  a  Sir  Hud- 
son Lowe  sous  cachet  volant ;  il  me  I'a  renvoyee  avec  la  lettre 
ci-jointe ;  ce  qui  m'engage  a  vous  la  faire  passer  directement. 
Je  suppose  qu'il  en  aura  pris  copie,  qu'il  vous  I'aura  envoyee 
avec  ses  observations,  et  qu'ainsi  cette  circonstance  n'aura  oc- 
casionne  aucun  retard. 

(Signe)  Le  Compte  Bertrand. 

LoNGWooD,  U  3  Septembre^  1830. 
S.  E.  le  Lord  Liverpool. 


»W 


Sir, 


(Inclosure  in  the  foregoing  letter.) 

Plantation  House,  2  Sept.^  1820. 


The  Governor's  instructions   not  admitting  him  to  receive 
any  letter  from  the  persons  residing  with  Napoleon  Bonaparto 


APPENDIX.  215 


where  the  title  of  Emperor  is  given  to  him,  I  am  directed  in 

consequence  to  return  you  the  inclosed. 

The  Governor  at  the  same  times  desires  me  to  observe,  that 

no  letter  w^as  ever  received  by  him  from  you,  to  the  address 

of  Lord  Liverpool,  of  the  date  of  25  June,  1819.     I  have  the 

honor  to  be,  Sir, 

Your  most  obedient  humble  servant, 

(Signe)  G.  Gorrequer, 

Military  Secretary. 

Pour  copie  "^  Pour  copie  conforme, 

(Signe)  Bertrand.  Princesse  Pauline  Borghese. 


Paris,  le  9  Decembre,  1820. 
My  Lord, 

L'interet  que  vous  voulez  bien  prendre  au  succ^s  de  mes 
demarches  relativement  a  la  demande  que  je  fais  au  gouverne- 
ment  Anglais  d'envoyer  un  secretaire  a  Longwood,  me  fait 
esperer  que  je  puis  sans  importunite  remettre  encore  entre  vos 
mains  cette  cause  que  je  crois  juste,  et  que  sans  doute  le  sera  a 
vos  yeux. 

J'ai  I'honneur  de  vous  adresser  ma  demande  a  Lord  Ba- 
thurst ;  je  sais  que  je  ne  puis  avoir  espoir  de  succes  que  dans 
rinteret  que  vous  voudrez  bien  y  prendre.  Lord  Bathui-st 
parait  avoir  pris  centre  moi  des  preventions  qui  lui  font  croire 
» que  toutes  mes  demandes  cachent  quelque  mystere  inquietant. 
Vous  serez  persuade.  My  Lord,  que  ce  n'est  pas  vous  que  je 
voudrais  tromper,  et  que  je  n'ai  qu'un  seul  but,  celui  d'apporter 
quelque  consolation  au  malheur. 

Je  n'entre  vis-a-vis  de  Lord  Bathurst  dans  aucun  detail  sur 
les  raisons  qui  me  paraissent  devoir  etre  prises  en  consideration; 
Son  Excellence  sait  mieux  que  moi  que  Ton  a  permis  h  Napo- 
leon d'avoir  trois  officiers  generaux,  plus  Monsieur  de  Las  Cases 


216 


FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 


et  son  fils.     M.  de  Las  Cases  a  ete  enleve  sans  qu'on  ait  jamais 
bien  corapris  pOurquoi.     Le  General  Gourgaud  a  quitte  Long- 
wood  volontaiiement.     II  ne  reste  done  plus  que   deux  per- 
sonnes  au  lieu  de  cinq,  et  je  demande  d'envoyer  M.  de  Planat 
comme  secretaire  de  Napoleon.     Ce  serait  ce  me  semble  une 
barbaric  d'exiger  qu'il  ne  partit  qu'en  remplacement  du  Corate 
Bertrand  ou  du  Corate  de  Montholon.     M.  de  Planat  m'a  ete 
designe  par  I'Empereur   comme    une    des    personnes   qui  lui 
seraient  agreables.     On  peut  meme  dire  qu'il  a  deja  ete  choisi 
par  lui  puisqu'il  I'accompagnoit  sur  le  Belleropbon.     Son  pere 
€tait  proprietaire  a  Paris.     II  est  entre  au  service  en  1806;  il  a 
ete  aide-de-camp  du  Genl.  Lariboissiere  et  du  Genl.  Drouot;  il 
avait  ete  nomme  officier  d'ordonnance  depuis  peu,  et  n'avait 
obtenu  le  grade  de  chef  d'escadron  qu'au  moment  ou  il  a  suivi 
Napoleon;  il  n'a  joue  aucun  role,  n'est  point  exile,  et  je  ne 
pense  pas  qu'il  soit  suspect  au  Gouvernement  Francais.     De- 
puis son  retour  de  Make,  il  a  toujours  vecu  en  Italie,  et  est  sans 
fortune,  et  a  recu  un  asile  aupres  de  la  princesse  Eliza  (M™^  Bac- 
ciocclii) ;  il  est  encore  a  Trieste. 

Son  depart  me  donnera  I'espoir  du  retour  de  Monsieur  de 
Montholon,  espoir  auquel  je  dois  renoncer  a  jamais,  si  le  Gou- 
vernement Anglais  refuse  la  permission  d'envoyer  un  individu 
qui  puisse  le  remplacer  (au  moins  en  partie),  C'est  assez  vous 
dire.  My  lord,  ce  que  je  vous  devrai,  et  je  ne  saurais  vous  ex- 
piimer  la  reconnaissance  dont  je  suis  penetree  pour  I'interet 
que  vous  voulez  bien  me  temoigner,  et  dont  je  sens  tout  le 
prix. 

Lord  Bathurst  est  tombe  dans  une  erreur  bizan*e  sur  I'aide 
de  cuisine  Perasset ;  cuisinier  il  fut,  il  est,  et  il  sera  vraisembla- 
blement.  Ses  manieres  et  son  langage  n'annoncent  pas  une 
condition  plus  relevee. 

Je  ne  veux  pas,  My  Lord,  occuper  plus  longtemps  votre  at^ 
tention. 


APPENDIX.  217 


J'ai  rhonneur  d'etre,  My  Lord,  votre  tres  humble  et  treg 
obeissante  servante. 

Vassal  de  Montholon. 
A  Lord  Holland,  ^ 


Villa  Paolina,  29  /m'w,  1821. 
Mylady, 

Sachant  par  Lord  Gower  que  vous  et  Mylord  etes  a  Paris, 
je  profile  d'une  bonne  occasion  pour  me  rappeler  a  votre  sou- 
venir, et  vous  prier  de  vouloir  bien  me  donner  des  nouvelles  de 
mon  bien  aime  frere,  dont  Tetat  de  sante  m'inqui^te  beaucoup, 
par  les  bruits  que  Ton  fait  repandre  sur  son  mauvais  etat. 
Nous  n'avons  reQU  aucune  nouvelle  du  pretre  qui  est  arrive  de 
Ste  Helene ;  il  vous  serait  peut-etre  possible,  My  lady,  de  vous 
en  informer,  et  de  me  donner  des  nouvelles  positives. 

J'espere  que  vous  etes  satisfaite  de  votre  sante ;  la  mienne  a 
un  peu  souffert  de  la  mauvaise  saison  que  nous  avons  ici.  Je 
vous  prie,  Mylady,  de  me  rappeler  au  souvenir  de  Mylord,  et 
de  recevoir  pour  vous  I'assurance  de  mes  sentiments  d'affection 
et  de  reconnaissance,  pour  toutes  les  marques  d'affection  que 
vous  n'avez  cesse  de  donner  a  mon  fr^re. 

Princesse  Pauline  Borghese. 

A  Lady  Holland. 


LoNDRES,  ce  17  Aout^  1821. 
Milord, 
J'ai  recu  la  lettre  que  vous  m'avez  fait  I'honneur  de  m'ecrire 
le  17  de  ce  mois.  J'ai  ete  extremement  sensible  h.  cette  marque 
de  votre  interet.  Je  regrette  beaucoup  que  vous  avez  ete  ab- 
sent de  ce  pays  a  mon  arrivee.  Ma  premiere  visite  eut  ete 
ce|.'tainement  chez  vous,  vous  le  seul  dont  la  voix  se  soit  elevee 


218 


FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 


dans  le  Senat  Britanniqne  centre  le  cruel  exil  ou  a  peri  si  mal- 
heureusement  le  grand  homme  que  la  France  pleurera  long- 
temps.  Vous  vous  etes  acquis,  Milord,  des  droits  sur  tons  les 
cceurs  genereux  et  a  la  reconnaissance  de  tous  les  amis  de 
I'Empereur.  Veuillez  me  compter  parmi  ceux  qui  ii'en  per- 
dront  jamais  le  souvenir. 

Permettez  que  Lady  Holland  tronve  iei  I'expression  des 
sentimens  de  gratitude  que  nous  devons  a  la  Constance  de  ses 
soins  et  de  ses  attentions  pour  le  proscrit  de  St.  Helene.  Elle 
a  reuSsi  d,  adoucir  les  ennuis  de  son  exil  j  I'arrivee  d'une  caisse 
de  livres  les  lui  faisait  oublier.  Tranquille  sur  le  jugement  de 
la  posterite,  il  aimait  cependant  a  retrouver  dans  les  bons  ou- 
vrages  qu'il  etait  apprecie  par  ses  contemporains,  et  les  libelles 
lui  fournissaient  souvent  I'occasion  d'eclaircir  des  fails  curieux. 
En  un  mot,  les  livres  nouveaux  etaient  pour  lui  une  distraction 
agreable  et^Un  sujet  de  conversations  interessantes.  Le  sou- 
venir que  I'Empereur  a  destine  ^  Lady  Holland  est  conserve 
avec  soin,  et  lui  sera  remis  par  le  General  Montholon. 

Ma  femme  se  joint  a  moi  pour  offrir  k  Lady  Holland  ses 
remerciement"  des  cadeaux,  livres,  attentions  de  toute  espece 
dont  elle  n.vs  a  comble  pendant  notre  sejour  a  Ste  Helene. 
Elle  lui  ecrira  pour  la  remercier  de  sa  lettre,  et  du  logement 
qu'elle  lui  destinait  a  Holland  House;  comme  elle  est  dans 
un  mauvais  etat  de  sante,  elle  ne  compte  pas  encore  quitter 
Londres. 

Veuillez  agreer,  Milord,  les  sentimens  de  haute  consideration 
avec  lesquels  j'ai  I'honneur  d'etre 

Votre  tres  humble  -^ 

et  tres  obeissant  serviteur, 

Le  Compte  Bertrand. 

The  Lord  Holland,  Paris. 


APPENDIX.  219 


Lyons  Inn,  Friday,  11th  January,  1823. 
Madam, 

Not  being  willing  to  confide  altogether  in  my  own  recollec- 
tion of  the  substance  of  the  MSS.  dictated  at  St.  Helena,  I  wrote 
a  request  to  Emmanuel  de  Las  Cases  to  give  me  some  details 
upon  the  subject,  especially  concerning  the  volume  just  pub- 
lished by  Colburn.     The  following  is  his  reply  : 

"  Vous  avez  raison  de  penser  que  le  volume  des  Memoires 
*  dictes  par  lui-me?ne'  est  imparfait.  Ce  sont  de  simples  brouil- 
lons  que  Grourgaud  a  arranges  et  qu'il  a  vend  us.  Avec  le  tems 
les  vrais  manuscrits  paroitront  et  feront  tomber  ce  volume.  11 
y  a  meme  deux  ou  trois  additions  que  Ton  a  mises  pour  faire 
plaisir  a  certaines  personnes. 

"Vous  avez  raison  de  penser  qu'il  y  avaitquelque  dissidence 
entre  M.  et  B. ;  cependant  ils  sont  toujours  bien  en  apparence, 
raais  ils  se  facheront  serieusement  si  les  memoires  dictated  hy 
himself,  paraissent  en  totalite  ;  ce  dont  je  doute  en  cc  moment.'-' 

The  volume  of  Melanges  consists  of  extracts  from  a  manu- 
script brought  home  by  Countess  Montholon,  and  I  believe  it 
to  be  authentic,  as  far  as  it  goes. 

When  Gourgaud  was  on  the  point  of  leaving  St.  Helena,  he 
was  required  to  give  up  every  thing  that  he  had  of  the  dicta- 
tion of  the  Emperor,  and  to  pledge  his  honor  that  none  of  it 
remained  in  his  hands.  He  gave  up  some  papers,  and  gave 
his  honor  that  he  had  returned  all  D. ;  but  about  three  weeks 
after  his  departure,  it  was  discovered  that  he  had  clandestinely 
carried  off  several  hrouillons  of  Napoleon's  dictation,  out  of 
which  he  composed  the  account  which  he  published  of  the  battle 
of  Waterloo,  soon  after  his  arrival  in  England,  and  the  volume 
just  published. 

As  I  am  aware  that  your  Ladyship  wishes  to  obtain  authentic, 
intelligence  upon  what  the  great  Exile  has  left  for  posterity,  I 
have  done  myself  the  honor  to  submit  the  ^bove  to  you,  and 


.  J/1.''  •St-  2 


220 


FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 


have  the  honor  to  be,  Madam,  with  unfeigned  respect,  your 
Ladyship's  very  obhged  humble  servant, 

Barry  Q.  O'Meara. 
To  Lady  Holland, 


Paris,  16  Fevrier^  1823. 
Milord, 

Quoique  I'incluse  que  vous  m'avez  fait  I'honneur  de  m'an- 
noncer  ne  se  soit  pas  trouvee  dans  votre  pli,  les  explications 
que  vous  avez  eu  la  bonte  de  me  donner  m'ont  paru  tellement 
completes,  que  je  n'ai  pas  eu  a  regretter  de  n'avoir  point  recu 
la  lettre  de  Mr.  Fox.  Ce  que  vous  me  mandez,  mon  cher 
Lord,  eclaircit  autant  qu'il  etait  possible  la  question  que  j'avais 
pris  la  liberte  de  vous  soumettre,  et  suffit  pour  temperer  le  be- 
soin  pressant  que  je  croyais  avoir  d'une  copie  figuree  du  Tes- 
tament de  Sainte-Helene.  J'ai  ete  extremement  sensible  a  la 
peine  que  vous  avez  prise  de  m'ecrire  enti^rement  de  votre 
main,  et  surtout  d'une  main  soufFrante.  J'aime  a  me  persuader 
que  la  douleur  est  a  present  disparue.  Peut-etre  la  favour  que 
vous  venez  de  me  faire  ne  sera  pas  la  derniere  que  j'aurai  a 
obtenir  de  vous. 

Je  desire  que  la  sante  de  la  tres  aimable  Milady  n'ait  pas,  ete 
alteree,  comme  celle  du  tres  cher  Milord  son  epoux,  et  je  prie 
le  respectable  couple  d'agreer  pour  la  saante  de  I'un  et  de  I'autre 
les  voeux  de  son  devoue  serviteur, 

Bertrand. 

P.S.  Ma  femrae  est  un  peu  soufFrante,  et  me  charge  de 
vous  addresser  ses  compliments  afFectueux. 

Le  Lord  Holland. 


APPENDIX.  221 


No.  VI. 
(See  page  138.) 

The  autograph  letter  to  Raynal  mentioned  in  the  text  is  in 
the  British  Museum  (Egerton  MSS.  No.  xvii.)  As  it  is  be- 
lieved to  be  inedited,  it  is  now  published  as  it  stands  in  the 
original. 

Monsieur, 
II  vous  sera  difficile  de  vous  ressouvenir  parmis  le  grand 
nombre  d'etrangers  qui  vous  importunent  de  leur  admiration, 
d'une  personne  a  laquelle  vouz  avez  bien  voulu  faire  des  hon- 
netetes.  L'annee  derniere,  vous  vous  entreteniez  avec  plaisir 
de  la  Corse;  daignez  done  jetter  un  coup  d'oeil  sur  cette  esquise 
de  son  histoire  :  je  vous  presente  ici  les  2  premieres  lettres ;  si 
vous  les  agrees  je  vous  en  enverois  la  fin. 

Mon  frere  a  qui  j'ai  recommande  de  ne  pas  oublier  dans  sa 
commission  de  deputes  pour  reconduire  Paoli  dans  la  patrie  de 
venir  recevoir  une  le9on  de  vertu  et  d'humanite  vous  les  re- 
metteras. 

Je  suis  avec  respect 

Votre  tres  humble 

et  tres  obeissant  serviteur. 

Buonaparte. 
'  Officier  d'Artillerie. 

Ajaccio,  le  24  Juin^  Van  ler  de  la  liberte. 

M.l' Abbe  Raynal. 

In  the  "  Memoires"  of  Lucien  Bonaparte,  Prince  of  Canine, 
Napoleon's  brother,  occurs  the  following  passage  : 

"  Napoleon,  dans  un  de  ses  conges  qu'il  venait  passer  a 
Ajaccio  (c'etait,  je  crois,  en  1790)  avait  compose  une  histoire 
des  revolutions  de  la  Corse,  don't  j'ecrivis  deux  copies,  et  dont 
je  regrette  bien  la  perte  :  un  de  ses  manuscrits  fut  adresse  k 


222  FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 


I'abbe  Raynal,  que  mon  fiere  avait  connu  a  son  passage  a  Mar? 
seille.  Raynal  trouva  cot  ouvrage  tellement  rem arqu able,  qu'il 
roulut  le  communiquer  a  Mirabeau.  Celui-ci,  renvoyant  le 
manusciit,  ecrivit  a  Raynal  que  cette  petite  histoiie  lui  sem- 
blait  annoncer  un  genie  du  premier  ordre.  La  reporise  de 
Raynal  s'accordait  avec  I'opinion  du  grand  orateur,  et  Napo- 
leon en  fut  ravi.  J'ai  fait  beaucoup  de  recherches  vaines  pour 
retrover  ces  pieces  qui  furent  detruites  probablement  dans 
I'incendie  de  notre  maison  par  les  troupes  de  Paoli." — Vol.  i. 
p.  92.  The  autograph  of  two  chapters  of  Napoleon's  history 
of  Corsica  is  in  England,  and  forms  part  of  the  collection  of  the 
Earl  of  Ashbumham. 


No.  VII. 
Letter  loritten  to  a  Lady,  in  1832. 

Dear , 

Why  are  you  so  hard  upon  Louis  Philippe  1  He  had  the 
misfortune  of  being  the  son  of  a  prince  who  had  little  principle 
and  many  vices  ;  and  whom,  from  a  variety  of  circumstances, 
which  it  would  be  tedious  now  to  explain,  it  was  and  still  is 
the  interest  and  fashion  of  many  factions  to  blacken  and  revile 
far  more  than  he  deserved.  With  all  his  imperfections  in  pri- 
vate life,  and  with  whatever  delinquencies  may  be  brought 
home  against  him  in  public,  he  was  at  heart  a  most  affectionate, 
indulgent,  and  judicious  father;  and  that  circumstance,  com- 
bined with  his  easy  and  captivating  manners,  endeared  him  to 
all  his  children,  and  to  none  more  than  his  eldest  son  (Louis 
Philippe). 

Educated  in  the  midst  of  the  revolution,  that  young  prince 
imbibed  popular  and  even  republican  principles,  distinguished 
himself  in  the  battle  of  J^mmappes,  fought  against  the  invaders 
of  his  country,  and  with  the  natural  ardor  of  youth  conceived  a 


APPENDIX.  223 


stl'ong  affection  and  admiration  for  the  general  who  had  led 
him  to  victory,  and  who  was  in  truth  no  ordinary  man- — Du- 
mourier.  When  that  general  had,  partly  from  the  levity  of  his 
character,  partly  from  the  ill-usage  of  his  employers,  deserted 
the  standard  of  the  Republic,  and  when  Egalite  the  father  had, 
without  any  proof  of  guilt,  and  without  any  appeai-ance  of  fear, 
perished  on  the  scaffold,  and  his  brothers  were  first  imprisoned 
and  then  banished,  Louis  Philippe  found  himself,  without  any 
fault  of  his  own,  either  through  the  misconduct  of  his  general, 
or  from  the  severity  of  the  republican  laws,  an  exile  from 
France ;  an  exile,  too,  neither  welcomed  nor  protected  by  the 
Powers  of  Europe  or  the  Royalist  party,  who  hated  his  house 
and  name,  and  who,  moreover,  were  little  disposed  to  make 
common  cause  with  any,  who  were  not  prepared  to  invite  and 
carry  foreign  arms  into  the  heart  of  their  country.  To  such  a^ 
line  of  conduct,  which  Louis  Philippe  and  his  family  have  uni- 
formly considered  as  rebellion,  he  was  at  this  early  period  of 
life  firmly  resolved  never  to  giv6  his  sanction.  He  accordingly 
entered  into  no  foreign  seiTice,  accepted  no  foreign  succor  of 
money,  except,  I  believe,  some  little  assistance  to  his  mother, 
from  those  courts  with  which  he  was  connected  by  blood,  and 
he  maintained  himself  by  his  industry  and  proficiency  in  sci- 
ences and  arts,  which  he  owed  to  the  provident  and  careful 
education,  which  his  father,  in  the  midst  of  a  dissolute  life,  had 
always  been  earnest  to  procure  for  him.  Surely,  thus  far,  there 
was  nothing  to  blame  in  his  conduct.  Well,  in  the  year  1800, 
or  thereabouts,  the  state  of  anarchy  in  which  France  was  sup- 
posed to  have  wearied  but  its  own  partisans,  and  a  notion  that 
fiomething  of  a  more  stable,  and  possibly  monarchical  natuie 
would  be  resorted  to,  was  generally  prevalent  in  Europe,  and 
more  than  whispered  in  the  best  informed  circles  at  Paris. 
But  both  principle  and  interest  deterred  all  Frenchmen,  who 
had  any  value  for  free  institutions,  or  any  concern  in  the  large 


224 


FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 


and  extensive  purchases  of  confiscated  land,  from  harboring  a 
thought  of  bringing  back  the  ancient  family,  or  at  least  the 
lineal  successors  of  the  last  king.  Many  important  personages, 
however,  were  suspected,  and  many  actually  did  look  to  tlie 
Mouse  of  Orleans,  as  affording  a  sort  of  compromise  (not  very 
dissimilar  to  that  of  William  and  the  House  of  Hanover  in  our 
country),  between  the  bigoted  Royalists  on  one  side,  and  the 
lovers  of  liberty  on  the  other.  On  this  occasion,  and  while 
speculations  of  his  possible  succession  to  the  crown  began  to  be 
afloat,  tbe  Duke  of  Orleans,  at  the  suggestion  of  Dumourier, 
spontaneously  recognized  Louis  XVHI.,  and  reconciled,  as  far 
as  he  could,  himself  and  his  family  to  the  exiled  dynasty.  la 
taking  this  step  he  unquestionably  departed  in  some  degree 
from  the  principles  in  which  he  had  started  in  life.  He  softened 
those  high,  popular,  stern,  and  republican  notions  which,  during 
the  first  ardor  of  the  revolution,  he,  in  common  with  thousands 
and  thousands  of  enthusiastic  young  men,  had  adopted. 

Perhaps  be  did  wrong  :  I  think  he  did ;  and  he  seemed,  on 
the  score  of  prudence,  to  act  unwisely  ;  but  at  least  his  error, 
and  the  season  of  committing  it,  bespoke  some  disinterestedness 
and  generosity.  It  was  the  first  moment  that  any  prospects  of 
ambition  had  opened  before  him,  and  he  renounced  them  all 
for  the  purpose  of  devoting  himself  to  the  cause  of  persons  in 
adversity,  who  were  indeed  related  to  him,  but  who,  on  no  one 
occasion,  had  ever  shown  any  predilection,  and  seldom  any 
thing  like  courtesy  or  common  justice,  to  him  or  his  family. 

It  is  true,  his  devotion  was  neither  in  profession  nor  in  fact 
blind  or  unqualified.  He  pledged  himself  to  acknowledge  no 
other  sovereign  of  France ;  he  pledged  himself  to  pay  alle- 
giance to  the  heir  of  the  Bourbons,  if  restored  by  Frenchmen 
to  the  throne  of  his  ancestors ;  but  he  did  not  pledge  himself  to 
serve  or  concert  with  Foreign  Powers,  for  the  purpose  of 
forcibly  restoring  them,  and  to  that  reserve  and  resolution  h© 


APPENDIX.  223 


adhered  then,  as  he  has  done  ever  since.  It  is  rumored  (and 
perhaps  is  true),  that  in  Sicily  and  at  Cadiz  he  engaged  in 
some  intrigues  which  betrayed  the  ambition  of  acquiring  po- 
litical power  in  Spain,  to  which  his  affinity  in  blood  and  by 
marriage  gave  him  some  pretension.  But  what  of  that]  It 
might  be  foolish,  presumptuous,  and  adventurous  to  do  so;  but 
it  was  neither  dishonorable,  nor  unprincipled,  nor  unjust,  nor 
inconsistent.  On  the  restoration  of  Lewis  XVIII.,  he  returned, 
consistently  with  his  professions,  and  in  conformity  to  his  in- 
terests, to  France.  The  vast  possessions  of  his  family  fortu-,. 
nately,  consisting  chiefly  in  buildings  and  of  forests,  had  not  been 
sold ;  they  were  restored  ;  and  they  could  not  on  any  pretext 
be  withheld.  He  was  moreover  admitted  as  a  Prince  of  the 
Blood,  and  a  Peer  of  the  House  of  Peers.  His  conduct  on  his 
return  was  irreproachable,  and  in  no  wise  different  from  that 
of  the  Duke  of  Bourbon,  and  other  Princes  of  the  Blood,  but 
the  manner  of  his  reception  by  the  people  was  very  different 
indeed.  It  made  a  much  stronger  and  more  lasting  impression 
on  the  jealous,  suspicious,  and  vindictive  tempers  of  the  elder 
branch  of  the  Bourbons  than  on  his  own.  He  was  greeted  in 
the  streets  and  in  the  Palais  Royal  with  frequent  exclamations 
of  "  Vivent  les  Orleans  !  ah  !  qu'il  ressemble  a  son  bon  pere  ! 
Celui-la  n'a  jamais  porte  les  armes  contre  la  patrie,  nous  le 
scavons  bien."  Even  before  "  les  cent  jours,"  the  Duchess  of 
Angouleme  and  the  Court  had  begun  to  mark  in  trifles,  as  her 
mother  had  done  before  her,  her  aversion  and  spite  to  the. 
House  of  Orleans. 

It  is  possible  that  among  the  various  cabals  and  intrigues 
formed  by  the  disaffected  during  that  year,  to  get  rid  of  the 
dynasty  imposed  wpon  them  hy  foreign  armies,  some  may  have 
directed  their  views  to  the  obvious  and  reasonable  expedient 
of  elevating  the  House  of  Orleans  to  the  throne  ;  an  expedient 
analogous  to  the  settlement  which  had  proved  so  successful  in 

K 


226  FOREIGN  REMINTSCENCES. 

England.  But  it  was  never,  I  believe,  rumored,  and  certainly 
never  proved,  that  the  Duke  of  Orleans  had,  directly  or  indi- 
rectly, the  smallest  connection  or  cognizance  of  any  such  pro- 
jects, which,  whatever  they  may  have  been,  were  absorbed  by 
the  sudden  return  of  Napoleon  and  his  rapid  march  and  oc- 
cupation of  Paris,  from  whence  the  House  of  Bourbon  fled  as 
ignominiously,  and  much  more  expeditiously,  than  they  had 
arrived  at  it.  The  Duke  of  Orleans  left  France  too ;  faithful 
to  his  promised  allegiance,  he  did  not  wait  to  acknowledge  and 
submit  to  Napoleon,  though  such  a  course  held  out  many 
obvious  advantages,  but  left  his  fortune  and.  estates  at  the 
mercy  of  the  Imperial  government.  But  though  his  adherence 
to  Lewis  XVIII.  withheld  him  from  paying  his  court  to  the 
rival  dynasty,  it  was  not  sufficient  to  deter  him  from  his  orig- 
inal and  laudable  resolution  of  never  carrying  war  into  his 
country.  He  did  not  go  to  Ghent.  He  was  no  party  to  any 
treaty  or  compact  with  foreigners,  and  he  retired  to  Ham,  near 
Richmond,  waiting  in  patience,  and  some  degree  of  poverty, 
the  event  of  the  contest.  When  it  restored  the  former  order  of 
things,  he  on  permission  and  invitation  returned,  though  the 
exclusion  of  the  Princes  of  the  Blood  from  the  right  of  speaking 
and  voting  in  the  House  of  Peers  (unless  specially  permitted  to 
do  so  by  the  king)  was  evidently  leveled  at  him ;  and  the 
whole  (ionduct  of  the  family  (the  king  only  excepted)  suf 
ficiently  indicated  that  the  old  enmity  to  his  House  was  revived, 
and  that  nothing  but  fear  and  want  of  power  restrained  it  from 
breaking  out  into  persecution,  or  at  least  perpetual  vexation 
and  systematic  slander  and  calumny. 

Throughout  the  reign  of  Lewis  XVIIL,  though  there  were 
many  things  he  disapproved  and  some  he  lamented,  he  never 
allowed  himself  to  take  any  active  part,  nor  even  encouraged 
any  others  to  do  so.  He  professed  to  be  under  some  personal 
obligation  to  Lewis  XVIIL;  and  that,  and  regard  to  his  owii^ 


APPENDIX.  227 


honor,  utterly  prevented  him,  he  said,  from  any  act  that  could 
endanger  his  government,  and  indisposed  him  even  to  such  as 
might  embarrass  or  perplex  it. 

On  the  accession  of  Charles  X.  that  monarch  paid  him  some 
court,  and  conferred  on  him  some  insignificant  favors,  but  pur- 
sued uniformly  a  system  of  policy  the  most  adverse  to  the  feel- 
ings and  principles  of  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  and  one  which  in 
his  judgment  led  to  the  catastrophe  we  have  since  witnessed, 
and  put,  consequently,  all  princes,  and  indeed  all  property,  in 
jeopardy.  He  concealed  his  opinions  on  these  matters  less, 
perhaps,  than  he  had  done  under  Louis  XVIII.,  but  he  neither 
openly  opposed,  nor  secretly  conspired  against  any ;  but  con- 
fined his  censures  to  conversation,  and  to  familiar  intercourse 
with  those  among  the  opposition  most  distinguished  for  talent 
and  moderation.  The  ordinances  came  out,  and  provoked  the 
resistance  and  revolution  of  1830.  In  preparing  that  resistance, 
the  Duke  of  Orleans  was  never  even  suspected  of  taking  any 
share.  When  the  conflict  occurred,  accidental  absence,  as  well 
as  inclination,  kept  him  aloof;  but  all  parties,  including  the 
King,  began  to  look  to  him  as  the  man  to  whom  power  (though 
provisional  and  temporary)  must  be  delegated  for  the  purposo 
of  restoring  tranquillity.  The  king  declared  him  lieutenant  of 
the  kingdom,  when  in  truth  he  had  lost  all  his  own  power,  and 
had  none  to  delegate  to  another ;  but  all  the  various  parties  at 
length  acquiesced  in  the  notion  of  placing  him  at  the  head  of 
the  country;  he  was  offered  the  Constitutional  Crown,  and  he 
accepted  it.  Could  he  prudently,  could  he  honestly  have  done 
otherwise  ?  If  you  look  to  his  own  honor  and  engagements,  he 
was  as  unshackled  by  any,  as  any  other  member  of  the  com- 
munity ;  and  it  was  quite  clear  that,  to  prevent  blood,  confusion, 
and  anarchy,  some  man  must  be  selected.  Had  he  refused, 
whom  would  he  have  benefited?  Charles  X.  and  the  old 
Court  ?     Far  from  it  j    they  would  probably  have   paid  the 


223 


FOKEIGN  REMINISCENCES. 


forfeits  of  their  crimes  in  blood,  or  at  least  in  imprisonment  and 
confiscation,  instead  of  being  allowed,  by  an  act  of  clemency 
almost  unexampled,  to  proceed  leisurely  out  of  the  country, 
which  they  had  by  false  oaths  deceived,  attempted  to  enslave, 
and  actually  deluged  in  blood,  and  to  withdraw  very  ample 
means  of  subsistence  for  themselves  and  the  wretched  remnant 
of  emigrant  rebels,  who  chose  to  follow  them.  The  tenderness, 
perhaps  improvident,  and  certainly  almost  unprecedented,  shown 
to  the  exiled  family,  is  mainly  to  be  attributed  to  the  forbearance 
of  Louis  Philippe,  and  to  an  implied  bargain  on  that  subject, 
which  accompanied  his  elevation  to  the  throne. 

Since  he  was  placed  there,  he  has  been  much  ridiculed  for  a 
vulgar  love  of  popularity ;  and  yet,  whenever  the  cause  of  hu- 
manity has  required  it,  he  has  readily  and  cheerfully  risked  that 
darling  object  without  reserve  and  hesitation.  He  has  done 
more ;  he  has  even  put  to  some  peril  the  confidence  of  his  own 
party  and  of  the  National  Guards,  for  the  sake  of  rescuing  from 
the  opei-ation  of  harsh  laws  and  vindictive  policy  those  who 
most  assuredly  would  never  have  shown  the  same  moderation 
toward  him.  The  escape  of  Polignac  and  his  colleagues  could 
not  but  be  most  unpopular  in  Paris,  where  so  many  parents, 
widows,  and  orphans  justly  attributed  the  loss  of  their  children, 
husbands,  and  fathers  to  his  wicked  and  sanguinary  measures. 
There  can,  I  think,  be  little  doubt,  that,  both  technically  and 
morally,  they  had  incurred  the  penalty  of  treason.  Personally, 
they  had  no  claims  whatever  on  the  new  king,  whose  advice 
they  had  constantly  repudiated,  and  whose  family  name  and 
principles  they  were  known  to  abhor.  And  yet,  at  no  small 
hazard  to  his  power,  and  at  yet  greater  injury  to  his  popularity, 
he  stood  forward  manfully  to  screen  them  from  the  punishment  of 
death.  His  whole  reign  has  been  marked  by  similar  lenity  to 
his  rivals  and  enemies.  He  has  materially  shaken  his  hold  on 
the  counti'y  by  indulging  on  all  occasions,  but  especially  where 


APPENDIX.  329 


the  old  Royalists  are  concerned,  his  natural  clemency  and  good- 
nature. Compare  the  proceedings  about  the  infatuated  little 
Duchess  of  Berry  either  with  those  of  England  toward  Charles 
Edward  and  the  Stuarts,  or  the  conduct  of  the  Courts  of  Spain, 
Portugal,  and  Naples  to  any  competitors  or  princes  engaged  in 
actual  hostilities  or  conspiracies  against  them.  Now,  what  is 
there,  I  ask,  in  all  this  to  excite  indignation  1 
•  I  have  heard  some  say  they  do  not  detest,  they  despise  Louis 
Philippe.  Why,  and  for  what  ]  Not  surely  for  want  of  talent. 
If  they  do,  his  contemners  must  be  very  conceited  people,  for 
in  knowledge,  eloquence,  and  quickness  of  apprehension  he  has 
not  many  superiors  in  Europe.  It  is  not,  I  presume,  for  want 
of  courage  ;  for,  when  in  danger,  he  has  displayed  much  of  that 
essential  quality;  and  he  has  never,  like  his  predecessors,  shrunk 
from  danger,  when  it  in  any  way  became  him  to  encounter  it. 
In  the  course  of  this  year,  on  a  most  trying  occasion  of  an  in- 
surrection in  Paris  (on  the  6th  of  June),  he  displayed  a  spirit 
and  presence  of  mind,  a  confidence  in  his  own  courage,  and  an 
intrepidity,  which  would  have  done  honor  to  Napoleon  himself, 
and  in  which  it  is  thought  that  great  man  on  one  or  two  occa- 
sions lost  the  opportunity  of  equaling  him. 

The  only  contempt  really  felt  for  him  is  for  his  virtues,  not 
his  vices ;  and  it  is  only  felt  by  those  who  look  upon  rashness 
and  cruelty  as  necessary  proofs  of  military  and  political  great- 
ness, and  regard  all  simple  in  public  matters  as  weakness  and 
pusillanimity.  That  he  has  not  yet  gratified  the  violent  pas- 
sions of  his  most  zealous  partisans,  and  that  he  has  thereby 
somewhat  deadened  their  zeal,  is  most  true,  and  is  much  to  bo 
lamented ;  but  it  surely  is  no  ground  for  the  just  and  impartial 
to  depreciate  his  character. 

So  much  for  his  public  conduct.  Take  him  in  his  private  capac- 
ity, and  he  is,  as  a  son,  a  brother,  a  husband,  a  father,  a  master, 
and  a  friend  quite  irreproachable.     Easy,  good-tempered,  good- 


230 


FOREIGN  REMINISCENCES. 


natured,  full  of  kind  affections,  and  almost  exempt  from  any  of 
the  malignant  passions,  it  may  be  said  that  with  his  private 
character  the  judgment  of  the  public  has  nothing  to  do ;  but 
surely  it  would  be  dealing  but  hard  measure  to  the  House  of 
Orleans,  if  the  dissolute  and  unprincipled  habits  of  the  father 
should  be  deemed  sufficient  to  give  currency  to  the  most  atro- 
cious calumnies  against  his  public  conduct  and  memory,  and 
yet  that  the  excellent  qualities  of  the  son  in  domestic  life  should 
not  be  allowed  to  raise  a  presumption  in  favor  of  the  motives 
and  principles  by  which  his  public  actions  are  regulated. 

(Signed)    Vassal  Holland. 


THE   ENT>. 


,A*■^^.^,^^./^-^*^.^  • 


COSMOS: 

A  SKETCH  OF  A  PHYSICAL  DESCRIPTION  OF  THE  UNIVERSE. 
BY  ALEXANDER  VON  HUMBOLDT. 

TRANSLATED   FROM   THE   GERMAN,   BY  E.  C.  OTTE. 
2  VOLS.  12mo,  paper,  $1  50  ;  muslin,  $1  70. 


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Of  this,  which  the  learned  Bunsen  has  called  the  great  work  of  our  age, 
the  importance  may  be  conceived  when  we  think  that  a  master-mind  has 
thus  brought  together  in  one  view  such  departments  of  knowledge  and 
science.  Humboldt,  who  is  now  an  octogenarian,  has  devoted  almost  his 
whole  life  to  the  collection  of  materials  for  this  work,  by  anxious  thought, 
travel,  reading,  and  experimental  research ;  and  has  thus  given  form  and 
reality  to  the  vision  of  his  early  life. — Baltimore  American. 

Here  is  a  work  which  unites  the  grandeur  and  extent  of  early  specula- 
tions with  the  fullness  and  precision  of  modern  science.  Akin  to  the  Ti- 
mcEus  of  Plato  in  its  artistic  repose,  in  solemn  earnestness,  and  calm  mag- 
nificence of  diction,  its  most  astonishing  speculations  are  based  upon  severe 
and  rigorous  investigation.  We  are  equally  surprised  at  the  fulhiess  and 
minuteness  of  his  knowledge,  and  ,the  masterly  clearness  with  which  his 
facts  are  arranged.  Indeed,  "  Cosmos"  is  a  work  of  art  almost  as  much  as 
of  philosopky. — London  Spectator. 

It  will  be  an  enduring  monument  to  the  memory  of  its  great  and  distin- 
guished author. —  Washington  Union. 

The  work  is  unique  in  its  character,  and  can  not,  perhaps,  be  better  de- 
I    scribed  in  a  single  word,  than  by  saying  that  it  puts  all  science  under  con- 
tribution to  establish  the  harmony  and  perfection  of  the  universal  system. 
*  *  *  The  engraved  portrait  (we  can  testify  from  some  knowledge  of  the 
original)  is  excellent. — Albany  Argus. 

In  a  small  compass  we  have  the  substance  of  many  volumes;,  the  results 
of  centuries  of  investigation  and  progress,  condensed,  reduced,  systematized, 
and  prepared  for  all  men  by  one  amply  competent  to  the  service. — Palladium. 

Cosmos  is  certain  to  make  a  great  noise  in  the  learned  world. — Freeman\ 
Journal. 

K  *  »  rjijjjg  ^g^gj.  knowledge,  too,  is  embodied  in  language  comprehensive 
to  all.     The  book  deserves  a  place  in  every  library  in  the  land — Prov.  Jour. 

What  a  wide  field  of  knowledge  is  here  laid  open,  by  one  of  the  master 
spirits  of  the  age !  In  this  reservoir  has  been  poured  the  treasures  of  his 
intellect  to  enrich  the  minds  not  only  of  the  present  generation,  but  of  un- 
born millions. — Albany  Atlas. 

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WAR    FOR    INDEPENDENCE. 

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WITH   600  ENGRAVINGS   ON  WOOD,  BY   LOSSING  AND   BARRITT,   CHIEFLY 
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This  elegant  work,  issued  semi-monthly,  will  he  completed  in  ahout  twen- 
ty NUMBERS,  containing  forty -eight  large  octavo  pages  each,  at  twenty-five 
CENTS  a  number.  It  is  a  pictorial  and  descriptive  record  of  a  journey,  recent- 
ly performed,  to  all  the  most  important  historical  localities  of  the  American 
Revolution.  The  plan  is  unique  and  attractive,  embracing  the  character- 
istics of  a  book  of  travel  and  a  history. 

The  historical  portions  of  the  narrative,  which  are  written  in  a  clear  and 
lively  style,  are  interspersed  with  descriptions  of  scenery,  personal  adven- 
tures, amusing  incidents,  and  piquant  sketches  of  character,  giving  a  perpet- 
ual interest  to  the  work,  like  that  of  the  journal  of  a  popular  tourist.  Who- 
ever would  refresh  his  knowledge  of  the  scenes  and  characters  of  the  Rev- 
olution, should  not  fail  to  watch  for  the  appearance  of  these  attractive  and 
delightful  numbers. — New  York  Tribune. 

The  first  number  of  a  serial  so  adapted  to  the  popular  wants  and  taste, 
that  we  predict  for  it  a  success  greater  than  that  which  attended  either  the 
"Pictorial  Bible"  or  " Shakspeare."  It  is  called  the  "Pield-Book  of  the 
Revolution,"  and  is  made  up  of  the  main  incidents  of  that  memorable  period, 
clearly  narrated  from  authentic  sources.  The  wood  engravings  are  in  the 
highest  style  of  the  art,  and  gracefully  interspersed  amid  the  text;  the  pa- 
per and  print  are  beautiful,  the  subject  universally  attractive,  the  price  of 
the  work  remarkably  low,  and  its  consequent  great  success  certain. — Home 
Journal. 

We  hail  the  appearance  of  this  work  with  great  pleasure,  and  doubt  not 
the  accomplished  author  will,  with  his  well-known  genius,  do  full  justice  to 
his  noble  theme  both  with  "pen  and  pencil,"  which  he  knows  so  well  how 
to  handle. — Albany  Atlas. 

We  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  it  will  be,  when  completed,  one  of 
the  most  attractive  works  ever  published  in  America. —  Troy  Budget. 

HARPER  &  BROTHERS,  PUBLISHERS,  NEW  YORK. 


\ 


i^'WWW^'^'W^^^'WV^^'^''^^^^^^^^^^^^^  ^^w 


THE  LIFE  AND  CORRESPONDENCE 


OF 


EOBEET  SOUTHEY,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

EDITED    BY    HIS    SON,    THE 

KEY.   CHARLES  CUTHBERT  SOUTHEY,  M.A. 

IN   SIX   PART.S,    8V0,    PAPER,    25   CENTS    EACH. 


In  Southey's  Life  and  Letters,  the  lovers  of  pleasant  English  prose  may 
make  sure  of  having  as  agreeable  a  specimen  of  unconscious  autobiography 
in  the  form  of  letters  as  any  in  our  language. — Edinburgh  Review. 

Gossipy  as  womanhood,  and  garrulous  as  the  "Doctor;"  playful  and  piqu- 
ant, it  forces  us  to  see  an  interest  about  persons  and  things  of  so  little  con- 
sequence that  we  wonder  how  even  the  connection  with  Southey  can  invest 
them  with  sufficient  materia  not  to  try  our  patience.  But  so  it  is  ;  and  the 
genealogies  of  families,  the  notices  of  common  and  indifferent  people,  the 
descriptions  of  casual  impressions,  the  nursery,  as  it  were,  turned  out  to 
view,  and  the  exploits  of  boy  comrades,  the  characters  of  various  teachers, 
and  small  anecdotes  of  household  affairs  and  relations,  are  all  set  forth  in  so 
lively  and  fresh  a  manner  that  our  amusement  never  flags,  and  our  sense  is 
ever  and  anon  awakened  to  suggestions  of  philosophical  import,  to  the 
great  business  of  more  mature  life. — Literary  Gazette. 

The  whole  volume  abounds  with  interest ;  the  autobiographical  portion 
will  be  perused  with  gi*eat  curiosity,  and  the  remaining  portions  of  this  first 
installment  of  the  "Life  and  Correspondence"  contain  a  mass  of  attractive 
and  entertaining  literary  gossip,  combined  with  delightful  notices  of  South- 
ey's early  career. — Morning  Advertiser. 

"We  have  rarely  read  a  more  delightful  piece  of  writing  than  the  first  fifty- 
eight  pages  of  this  work.  There  is  a  gossiping  chann  in  its  minute  details, 
a  transparent  purity  in  its  style,  and  a  gentle  tinge  of  melancholy,  natural 
to  such  a  retrospect  at  the  age  of  fifty,  that  throw  an  unusual  charm  about 
this  account  of  his  early  years. —  Watchman  and  Observer, 

To  the  lovers  of  refined  and  elegant  literature,  this  announcement  will  im- 
part anticipations  of  gratification,  such  as  few  biogi'aphies  are  capable  of 
afibrding. — Journal  of  Commerce. 

We  doubt  not  that  it  will  be  one  of  the  most  popular  issues  of  the  sea- 
son.— Hartford  Republican. 

A  rare  intellectual  treat. — Springfield  Republican. 

We  do  not  tliink  the  language  contains  a  more  delightful  piece  of  autobi- 
ography, rich  as  are  its  treasures  in  that  style  of  composition,  than  these 
passages  of  the  early  life  of  Southey.  It  is  full  of  the  vividest  traits  of  truth 
and  character  expressed  with  manly  unafFectedness. — London  Examiner. 

HARPER  &  BROTHERS,  PUBLISHERS,  NEW  YORK. 


^^  mimhlt  €nt-%uk  for  Irjjnnls  m]i  (Cnlbga 

ELEMENTS   OF  | 

lATUEAL  PHILOSOPHY.! 

DESIGNED  AS  A  TEXT-BOOK  FOR  ACADEMIES,  HIGH-SCHOOLS, 
.^..     AND  COLLEGES. 

BY   ALONZO    GRAY,   A.M. 

^KUuHtrateti  h^  CTJrce  J^untJretJ  antr  Sijrtfi  5M!FootJ*<S;ut». 
12mo,  muslin,  70  cents  ;  sheep,  75  cents. 


-    •»></y.^^s^^\/VW**«~ 


Well  suited  to  win  the  confidence  of  the  public,  and  to  sustain  the  reputa- 
tion of  the  author.  It  embodies  a  compend  of  the  latest  researches  of  mod- 
ern science  in  Natural  Philosophy,  and  preserves  a  just  medium  between 
more  learned  and  voluminous  treatises,  and  barren  and  profitless  abstracts. 
— Rev.  Lyman  Colman,  D.D. 

From  the  particular  attention  I  formerly  bestowed  upon  some  sheets  of 
the  work,  I  think  you  have  very  successfully  prepared  a  book  to  occupy  the 
medium  place  between  the  larger  and  the  more  elementaiy  works  now  in 
use  as  text-books,  as  you  designed  to  do.  The  analysis  prefixed  to  each 
section,  after  the  manner  of  Dr.  Amott,  is  an  excellent  feature  of  the  work. 
I  am  glad  to  see  that  you  have  introduced  so  many  facts  and  principles  of 
modem  science,  and  have  given  the  pupil  the  opportunity  to  apply  his 
knowledge  as  he  acquires  it  to  the  solution  of  numerical  questions. — E.  S. 
Snelt.,  Professor  of  Natural  Philosophy,  Amherst  College.  — 

I  regard  it  as  superior  both  in  matter  and  arrangement  to  any  other  ele- 
mentary work  on  the  subject  with  which  I  am  acquainted. — W.  H.  Wells, 
Putnam  Free  School,  Newburyport,Mass. 

It  shows  every  where  the  marks  of  thorough  working  out,  and  that  with 
a  definite  view  to  practical  use  in  the  school-room. — Meth.  Quar.  Review. 

It  is  a  clear,  compact,  well-conceived,  and  well-executed  treatise,  lucid 
in  style,  simple  in  design  and  arrangement.  We  cordially  recommend  it 
to  schools  and  teachers  generally,  as  a  suitable  text-book  for  studies  in  this 
department. — Congregationalist. 

We  regard  the  book  as  admirably  adapted  for  academies  and  high-schools. 
—  Watchman  and  Observer. 

Its  lucid  arrangement,  the  variety  and  force  of  its  illustrations,  and  the 
even  flow  and  simplicity  of  its  style,  are  admirably  adapted  to  make  this 
volume  not  only  an  excellent  manual  for  teachers,  but  a  valuable  book  of 
reference  for  every  class  of  readers  who  wish  to  keep  up  with  the  scientific 
improvements  of  the  day. — Neio  York  Tribune. 

HARPER  &  BROTHERS,  PUBLISHERS,  NEW  YORK. 


3.  0tantrartr  National  iOork. 


■■^■^^^ ' 


HISTORY 


OP 


THE  UNITED  STATES, 

FROM  THE  FIRST  SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  COUNTRY  TO  THE 
ORGANIZATION  OF  GOVERNMENT  UNDER  THE  FED- 
ERAL CONSTITUTION. 

BY  RICHARD  HILDRETH,  ESQ. 

3  VOLS.  8vo,  MUSLIN,  $6  00  ;  sheep,  $6  75 ;  half  calf,  $7  50. 


We  are  confident  that  when  the  merits  of  this  history  come  to  be  known 
and  appreciated,  it  will  be  extensively  regarded  as  decidedly  superior  to 
any  thing  that  before  existed  on  American  history,  and  as  a  valuable  con- 
tribution to  American  authorship.  *  *  *  These  three  stately  volumes  will  be 
an  ornament  to  any  library,  and  no  intelligent  American  can  afford  to  be 
without  the  work.  "We  have  nobly  patronized  the  great  EngUsh  history 
of  the  age,  let  us  not  fail  to  appreciate  and  patronize  an  American  history 
so  respectable  and  valuable  as  this  certainly  is. — Biblical  Repository/. 

Mr.  Hildreth  has  done  well  to  bring  his  own  eame&t,  downright,  manly, 
and  sincere  mind  to  study  the  facts  of  American  history,  and  to  describe 
them  to  others  from  his  own  remarkable  points  of  view,  and  in  his  own  orig- 
inal way.  We  can  not  help  acknowledging  the  great  value  of  his  services 
in  giving  us  more  complete,  as  well  as  very  striking,  and  instructive,  and 
entertaining  views  of  the  history  of  our  country. — Christian  Register. 

*  *  *  His  work  fills  a  want,  and  is,  therefore,  most  welcome.  Its  posi- 
tive merits,  in  addition  to  those  already  mentioned,  are  impartiality,  stead- 
iness of  view,  clear  appreciation  of  character,  and,  in  point  of  style,  a  terse- 
ness and  conciseness  not  unlike  Tacitus,  with  not  a  little,  too,  of  Taciteau 
vigor  of  thought,  stern  sense  of  justice,  sharp  irony,  and  profound  wisdom. 
— Methodist  Quarterly/  Review. 

We  consider  that  Mr.  Hildreth  has  done  good  service  in  the  publication 
of  this  work.  It  is  apparent  that  it  must  have  cost  him  much  pains  and  re- 
search, from  the  vast  variety  of  facts,  which  are  briefly  but  clearly  stated, 
and  afford  both  instruction  and  entertainment  to  the  reader.  We  express 
our  own  conviction  that  the  work  will  be  found  a  very  useful  source  of  in- 
formation for  the  student  of  American  history,  and  a  safe  guide  to  direct  him 
in  his  more  full  and  profound  researches. — Churchman. 

}/^r.  Hildretb's  work  will  be  a  standard  of  reference  for  the  student  of 
American  history,  and  will  become  a  favorite  in  proportion  as  it  is  known. 
—National  Era. 


i^AMA^MMAMMAMA^t^^MV^^^S/'WN^SyS^W^^'^k^syS^Ny^yN^S^tr^ain^ 


NctD  toork  by  lames. 


DARK  SCENES  OF  HISTORY. 

B  Y  G.  p.  R.  J  A  M  E  S,   E  S  Q. 

12mo,  paper,  75  cents  ;  muslin,  $1  00. 


«#M^)/>^#^  ^s/>^^^##.s.* 


It  was  a  happy  thought  to  group  together  some  of  these  darker  pages  of 
history.  The  contrast  cleanses  the  heart.  We  learn  best  to  enjoy  the  state 
of  things  under  which  we  live. — Colburn's  New  Monthly. 

He  has  shown  great  judgment  in  the  selection  of  his  topics,  and  bandied 
them  with  more  than  his  usual  facility  and  effect.  Among  the  "Dark 
Scenes"  which  he  brings  to  light,  are  the  histories  of  "  Perkin  Warbeck," 
"The  Albigenses,"  "  Wallenstein,"  "The  last  Days  of  the  Templars." 
They  are  portrayed  with  the  rich  coloring  for  which  the  author  is  distin- 
guished, and  will  add  to  his  reputation. —  Tiibune. 

The  reader  will  derive  much  valuable  information  from  the  thrilling  nar- 
ratives which  are  contained  in  this  work. — Boston  Daily  Journat. 

We  question  whether  the  cover  of  any  book  ever  before  enveloped  such 
a  mass  of  startling  and  gigantic  criminal  transactions  ;  delineated,  too,  most 
thrillingly,  in  the  peculiar  style  of  the  author ;  the  lights  like  the  brightest 
sunbeams — the  shadows  black  as  Erebus. — Daily  Times  and  Republic. 

One  of  the  most  entertaining  volumes  which  have  issued  from  Mr.  James's 
prolific  pen — using  the  word  entertaining  in  its  best  sense.  The  author  has 
seized  upon  some  of  the  most  striking  events  of  history,  and,  without  de- 
parting from  fidelity  of  narrative,  has  thrown  around  them  so  much  vivid 
coloring  and  dramatic  effect  that  the  reader's  attention  never  wearies,  and 
he  receives  pleasure  and  instruction  from  the  same  page. — Com.  AdveHiser. 

This  is  a  well-written  book,  contains  a  large  amount  of  valuable  historical 
information,  judiciously  condensed,  and  will  be  read  with  great  advantage 
as  well  as  absorbing  interest.  We  predict  for  this  publication  an  extensive 
circulation. — Methodist  Protestant. 

This  volume  is  at  once  interesting  and  instructive. — Baltimore  American. 

The  topics  embraced  are  very  interesting  ones. — Neio  York  Observer. 

Many  important  facts  are  brought  together  in  a  clear  and  instructive  man- 
ner.— Presbyterian. 

The  author  has  set  forth  vice  in  its  own  colors,  and  has  drawn  some  most 
impressive  lessons  from  the  facts  he  records.  We  can  testify  of  its  absorb- 
ing interest,  and  do  not  doubt  that  it  will  become  popular. — Evangelist. 

These  are  the  compositions  in  which  the  author  excels,  combining  histor. 
ical  information  with  critical  acumen.  The  tragical  descriptions  are  full  of 
force ;  the  entire  work  is  worthy  of  the  author's  great  popularity. — Lit.  Gaz 

HARPER  «&  BROTHERS,  PUBLISHERS.  NEW  YORK. 


%  Ncu)  iUork  on  Spain. 
GLIMPSES  OF  SPAII; 

OR,  NOTES  OF  AN  UNFINISHED  TOUR  IN  184  7. 

BY  S.  T.  WALLIS,  ESQ. 

12mo,  paper,  75  cents  ;  muslin,  $1  00. 

Its  felicitous  sketches,  its  piquancy  of  narrative,  and  accuracy  of  obser- 
vation, we  may  venture  to  predict  will  give  it  a  high  position  among  the 
best  books  of  travel  of  the  day,  excellent  as  some  of  these  have  been  of  late 
years. — Baltimore  American. ' 

We  should  be  pleased  if  all  travelers  were  as  entertaining  as  Wallis,  and 
all "  Notes"  as  racy  and  new  as  these  "  Glimpses  of  Spain." — Lit.  American. 

"We  venture  to  predict  for  this  volume  a  very  large  share  of  public  favor, 
which  we  think  it  most  fully  deserves.  *  *  *  An  agreeable  and  clever  work. 
We  repeat  that  we  rarely  stumble  on  one  of  its  kind  that  has  afiforded  us 
so  much  pleasure. — Albion. 

These  "  Glimpses"  do  credit  to  the  eye  which  saw  and  the  pen  which 
describes  them.  Mr.  Wallis  treats  of  Spain  and  Spaniards  as  they  are,  not 
as  they  are  not. — Boston  Post. 

The  author  is  an  intelligent  and  well-read  man,  and  tells  his  story  in  a 
very  animated  manner.  He  is  disposed  to  take  a  very  favorable  view  of 
Spanish  character  and  manners,  the  eflfect  of  which  is  to  render  his  book  the 
more  interesting. — New  York  Observer. 

A  sensible,  well-written,  and  highly  entertaining  volume,  embodying  ma- 
tured and  comprehensive  views  with  interesting  personal  incident. — South- 
ern Christian  Advocate. 

It  furnishes  a  rich  intellectual  treat. — Methodist  Protestant. 

It  is  written  with  clearness,  and  in  a  most  agreeable  style,  which  famil- 
iarizes, so  to  speak,  the  reader  with  the  subject  of  which  it  treats,  and  car- 
ries him  on  his  journey  as  if  he  were  really  making  it  himself,  so  skillfully 
and  yet  so  artlessly  is  the  narrative  given. — Baltimore  Patriot. 

The  book  abounds  with  interest  and  amusement. — Freeman's  Journal. 

We  like  this  book  exceedingly.  All  the  author  says  is  full  of  sense,  and 
heart,  and  purpose.  Of  all  the  books  we  have  ever  read  on  Spain,  commend 
us  to  this  one. — Christian  Alliance. 

It  is  characterized  by  a  close  observation  of  all  material  facts  and  inci- 
dents, a  liberal  view  of  existing  institutions,  and  a  style  easy,  graceful,  and 
readable  in  a  high  degree. — Methodist  Quarterly  Review. 

HARPER  8l   brothers.  PUBtlSHERS,  NEW  YORK. 


A  SYSTEM  OF  ANCIENT  AND 

MEDIJIYAL  GEOGEAPHX 

FOR  THE  USE  OF  SCHOOLS  AND  COLLEGES. 
BY  CHARLES  ANTHON,  LL.D. 

8vo,  MUSLIN,  $1  50 ;  sheep,  $1  75. 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  book  is  a  history  as  well  as  a  geography.  The 
two  are,  in  truth,  happily  combined.  This  renders  the  work  something  more 
than  a  dry  enumeration  of  geographical  details  ;  it  may  be  read  with  the 
same  pleasure  as  one,  anxious  for  information,  would  read  a  histoiy.  The 
work  is  every  where  instinct  with  life:  it  is,  in  fact,  geography  historically 
treated.  It  contains,  besides,  much  curious  and  instructive  information  on 
points  of  knowledge  concerning  which  we  are  accustomed  to  search  else- 
where, and  often  to  search  in  vain. — S.  W.  Baptist  Chronicle. 

Those  who  have  attempted  to  teach  Greek  and  Latin  literature,  know  that 
a  good  and  complete  system  of  classical  geography  has  been  among  the  ab- 
solute vjants  of  American  schools  and  colleges.  The  work  before  us  is 
meant  precisely  to  fill  the  gap ;  and  it  takes  up  the  subject  in  the  exhaust- 
ive way  in  which  Dr.  Anthon  generally  treats  the  subjects  he  undertakes 
to  discuss. — Methodist  Q,%iarterly  Revieio. 

It  is  well  done,  and  we  do  not  know  of  a  work  in  the  English  language 
that  could  be  substituted  for  it  in  the  department  to  which  it  belongs. — Pur- 
itan Recorder. 

Of  the  many  volumes  for  which  the  public  are  indebted  to  Dr.  Anthon, 
there  is  not  one  more  admirably  executed,  in  all  I'espects,  than  this.  Every 
page  evinces  the  most  thorough  discrimination. — New  York  Tribune. 

The  work  is  a  monument  of  the  learning  and  the  unwearied  diligence  of 
the  author. — Sartain's  Magazine. 

Invaluable  to  the  traveler  and  the  student. — Democratic  Review. 


^■■»>»»#^>/.A##^^^v^^^<**^ 


A  CLASSICAL  ATLAS, 

TO  ILLUSTRATE  ANCIENT  GEOGRAPHY, 

COMPRISED     IN    TWENTY-FIVE     MAPS,   SHOWING    THE    VARIOUS    DI- 
VISIONS   OF    THE   WORLD  AS  KNOWN   TO   THE    ANCIENTS. 
WITH,  AN    INDEX   OF    TIIE   ANCIENT   AND    MOD- 
ERN   NAMES. 

BY  ALEXANDER  G.  FINDLAY,  F.R.G.S.      | 

8V0,    HALF    BOUND,    PRICE    REDUCED    TO    $3    25. 


l-««l^ 


LIFE  OF  JOHN  CALVIN. 

COMPILED    FROM    AUTHENTIC     SOURCES,     AND     PAR- 
TICULARLY    FROM     HIS     CORRESPONDENCE. 

BY  THOMAS  H.  DYER. 

PORTRAIT.       12mO,    paper,    75    CENTS  ;    MUSLIN,    $1    00. 

It  is  written  with  no  little  ability.  Its  materials  are  abundant  and  well 
arranged;  its  style  vigorous  and  pleasing;  and  it  wears  the  air  of  philosoph- 
ical impartiality  and  great  candor. — Biblical  Repository. 

Most  seasonable  and  acceptable,  written  as  it  is,  temperately  and  impar- 
\  tially,  and  as  much  as  it  is  possible  on  Calvin's  own  correspondence.  We 
have  thus  laid  open  to  us  the  secret  springs  of  all  his  actions,  his  private 
thoughts  on  all  subjects,  his  motives  and  objects,  the  workings  of  his  miud 
on  all  occasions  of  controversy  and  correspondence  with  friends  or  foes.  It 
is  a  faithful  history. — Bentley's  Miscellany. 

This,  we  think,  will  be  the  popular  life  of  Calvin, — Meth.  Quart.  Review. 

A  candid  and  well-considered  life  of  Calvin. — Albany  State  Register. 

The  first  really  adequate  memoir  of  the  great  Reformer  that  our  language 
has  contained. — Zion's  Herald. 

A  careful,  solid,  and  scholar-like  performance. — London  Aihenceum. 

It  seems  to  be  written  with  much  calmness  and  impartiality,  and  to  give 
a  clear  and  well-executed  view  of  the  busy  and  eventful  life  of  the  Reformer 
of  Geneva. — Churchman. 

It  is  written  with  no  little  ability  and  resQViVch.— Watchman  and  Observer. 

The  book  will  be  read  with  much  eagerness.  It  is  well-written,  and  ex- 
hibits much  labor  on  the  part  of  the  author  in  bringing  to  light  much  new 
matter  relating  to  this  wonderful  man. — Providejice  Journal. 

It  is  evidently  the  result  of  an  extended  and  minute  investigation,  and 
every  known  source  of  information  seems  to  have  been  faithfully  explored. 
— Lutheran  Observe?: 

The  author  has  been  successful  in  imparting  new  interest  of  a  high  order 
to  the  incidents  and  controversies  in  which  Calvin  was  involved. — New  Bed. 
ford  Mercury. 

The  narrative  is  well  written. — Boston  Journal. 

A  careful,  painstaking,  and  elaborate  book. — London  Spectator. 

Mr.  Dyer's  memoir  will  be  a  standard  hodk.^Commercial  Advertiser. 

This  is  the  best  biography  of  Calvin  ever  given  to  the  public. — Bait.  Amer. 

Heretofore,  we  have  had  no  life  of  Calvin  suitable  for  general  readers,  and 
the  work  of  Mr.  Dyer  is  well  adapted  to  supply  this  deficiency.    It  is  writ- 
\    ten  with  candor. — Southern  Christian  Advocate. 

\        Contains  much  interesting  and  valuable  matter. — Puritan  Recorder. 
>        It  is  a  successful  effort :  the  author  has  had  access  to  the  best  authorities, 
and  has  spared  no  pains  to  sift  eveiy  matter  thoroughly. — Literary  World. 

HARPER  &   BROTHERS,  PUBLISHERS,  NEW  Y'ORK. 


AN  EIGLISH-LATII  LEXICOI. 

FOUNDED    ON    THE    GERMAN-LATIN    DICTIONARY    OF    DR.    C.  E. 
GEORGES,    BY   REV.    J.    E.    RIDDLE,    M.A.,    AND    REV.    T.   K. 
ARNOLD,  M.A.      FIRST  AMERICAN  EDITION,  CAREFUL- 
LY REVISED,  AND  CONTAINING  A   COPIOUS   DIC- 
TIONARY   OF    PROPER    NAMES    FROM    THE 
BEST    SOURCES, 

BY  CHAELES  ANTHON,  LL,D. 

KOYAL    8V0,    SHEEP    EXTRA,    $3    00. 

Among  all  the  books  in  the  field  of  classical  literature,  we  speak  from 
some  experience,  there  is  not  one  more  useful,  necessary,  and  valuable,  than 
this  lexicon. — Literary  World. 

This  new  English-Latin  Lexicon,  like  Liddell  and  Scott's  Greek,  and 
Freund's  Latin  Dictionaries  (Andi-eivs'S  Latin-English  Lexicon),  will  nec- 
essarily supersede  all  other  works  of  the  same  class,  and  for  the  same  rea- 
son— its  superiority. — Methodist  Quarterly  Revieic. 

It  is  the  only  English-Latin  dictionary  that  a  student  can  consult  with  a 
reasonable  hope  of  finding  what  he  wants,  or  with  any  certainty  of  being 
able  to  trust  what  he  finds. — Sartain's  Magazine. 

The  best  work  of  the  kind  ever  published,  and  destined  to  supersede  the 
use  of  every  other  English-Latin  dictionary. — Holden's  Review. 

The  most  copious  and  the  best  arranged  of  its  kind  that  we  have  ever 
seen . — National  Intellige ncer. 

It  is  a  noble,  an  invaluable  contribution  to  classical  literature  and  to  the 
cause  of  classical  education  generally. — Commercial  Advertiser. 

Destined  to  take  pre-eminent  rank  among  the  improved  educational  books 
of  the  present  age. —  Washington  Union. 

The  work  displays  great  research,  and  must  be  invaluable  to  the  classi- 
cal reader. — Rochester  Democrat. 

An  invaluable  work  for  the  student  of  Latin,  in  method,  fullness,  and  clear- 
ness.— Churchman. 

It  must  supersede  every  similar  work  now  in  use  in  schools  and  colleges 
throughout  the  United  States,  as  it  has  already  done  in  England. — Courier. 

Of  immense  use  to  those  who  are  learning  to  write  Latin. — Puritan  Rec. 

Superior  to  any  thing  of  the  kind.  There  is  no  such  thesaurus  of  Latin 
equivalents  for  EngUsh  expressions  ;  all  others  are  meager  in  the  compari- 
son.— Christian  Intelligencer. 

This  work  supplies  every  former  deficiency,  and  must  find  its  way  at  once 
into  the  hands  of  every  teacher  and  pupil. — American  Spectator. 

This  is  a  work  such  as  never  before  appeared  in  the  English  language. — 
Freeman's  Journal. 

HARPER  &  BROTHERS  PUBLISHERS,  NEW  YORK. 


1 


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